It was a record-breaking Indian Premier League player auction on Friday, with Sam Curran, Cameron Green, Ben Stokes and Nicholas Pooran drawing the four highest-ever bids in the history of the T20 competition.

The IPL 2023 player auction in Kochi was expected to throw up some big numbers especially with the allrounders set.

IPL 2023, player auction blog

Top 5 buys after first 2 sets

TEAM PLAYER TYPE PRICE
Punjab Kings Sam Curran All-Rounder ₹18,50,00,000
Mumbai Indians Cameron Green All-Rounder ₹17,50,00,000
Chennai Super Kings Ben Stokes All-Rounder ₹16,25,00,000
Sunrisers Hyderabad Harry Brook Batter ₹13,25,00,000
Sunrisers Hyderabad Mayank Agarwal Batter ₹8,25,00,000

England all-rounder Sam Curran created history as he became the most expensive recruit ever in IPL auction history, with the Punjab Kings bidding a staggering Rs 18.5 crore for him.

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Curran played a key role in England’s T20 World Cup triumph recently and was player of the tournament. Mumbai Indians were in the race to pick him up too, but PBKS held firm till the end and seemed elated with their big recruit.

Most expensive players in IPL auction history

Player Price
Sam Curran (2022) Rs 18.5 crore
Cameron Green (2022) Rs 17.5 crore
Ben Stokes (2022) Rs 16.25 crore
Chris Morris Rs 16.25 crore
Nicholas Pooran (2022) Rs 16 crore
Yuvraj Singh Rs 16 crore
Pat Cummins Rs 15.5 crore
Ishan Kishan Rs 15.25 crore
Kyle Jamieson Rs 15 crore
Ben Stokes Rs 14.5 crore

Mumbai, however, acquired Green soon after, with the Australian all-rounder becoming the second-most expensive recruit ever in the IPL at Rs 17.5 crore.

Ben Stokes then matched Chris Morris (2021) for the third-highest bid ever as Chennai Super Kings acquired the star all-rounder’s services for Rs 16.25 crore.

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In Set 3, West Indies batter Pooran got the joint fourth-highest bid ever as the Lucknow Super Giants acquired the West Indies batter for Rs 16 crore.

Earlier, in the first set of the day, it was England batter Harry Brook who set the ball rolling with a whopping Rs 13.25 crore bid from the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The right-hander was part of England’s T20 World Cup-winning squad before playing a key role in the T20I and Test series in Pakistan recently.

SET 1

Player  Reserve Price Rs Lakh  Bid amount Rs lakh Team 
Mayank Agarwal  100  825  SRH 
Harry Brook  150  1325  SRH 
Ajinkya Rahane  50  50  CSK 
Joe Root  100  UNSOLD 
Rilee Rossouw  200  UNSOLD 
Kane Williamson  200  200  GT

SET 2

Player  Country  Base price Rs lakh  Bid amount Rs lakh  Team 
Sam Curran  England  200  1850  PBKS 
Cameron Green  Australia  200  1750  MI 
Shakib Al Hasan  Bangladesh  150  UNSOLD 
Jason Holder  West Indies  200  575  RR 
Sikandar Raza  Zimbabwe  50  50  PBKS 
Odean Smith  West Indies  50  50  GT 
Ben Stokes  England  200  1625  CSK

More to follow