IPL Auction 2023: Five Most Costliest Players And A New Record

The Indian Premier League auction in Kochi saw numbers rising on all fronts—from the money spent by teams to the most expensive buy of the year. The 10 teams competing this year bolstered their squads at the mini-auction held on Friday.

The teams—Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Titans, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lucknow Super Giants, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad— spent Rs 167 crore at the auction, according to data shared by IPL. This is slightly above 80% of the Rs 206.5 crore cumulative purse teams carried into bidding.

Each of the 10 teams had a spending limit of Rs 95 crore each this year. Prior to the auction, the teams had already spent Rs 743.5 crore to retain former team members. Together with the amount spent in bidding, IPL teams dished out Rs 910.5 crore together on selecting the squad for the upcoming edition of the tournament.

Numbers available on IPL website show that teams had spent Rs 821.20 crore, including retention money and auction spends, last year.

Teams bought 80 players in the auction against the 87 slots available. Among the purchases, 29 were overseas players, compared to 30 vacancies for foreign cricketers.

The auction had 273 Indian players and 132 foreign ones. The shortlisted players included 119 capped and 282 uncapped players, along with four from associate nations.

Sam Curran became the most expensive player in the IPL yet, with Punjab Kings acquiring the English bowling all-rounder for Rs 18.50 crore after a long-drawn bidding war with Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals. This surpasses the record of Rs 16.25 crore Rajasthan Royals spent on Chris Morris in 2021.

The second name on the top buys list was of Cameron Green, who was picked by Mumbai Indians for Rs 17.50 crore. He was followed by Ben Stokes, who went to Chennai Super Kings for Rs 16.25 crore after an intense bidding round.

Lucknow Super Giants paid Rs 16 crore for wicket-keeper Nicholas Pooran, while batsman Harry Brook was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 13.25 crore.

The first Indian among the top 10 buys was Mayank Agarwal, who also went to the Hyderabad squad for Rs 8.25 crore. The list had two more Indians—Shivam Mavi going to Gujarat Titans for Rs 6 crore and Mukesh Kumar taken by Delhi Capitals for Rs 5.5 crore. Both Mavi and Kumar are uncapped bowlers, and only the former has prior IPL experience.

Rilee Rossouw (Rs 4.6 crore), Shakib Al Hassan (Rs 1.5 crore) and Joe Root (Rs 1 crore), who initially went unsold in the auction were bought by Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals, respectively, in extended bidding.

Of the players that went on the block today, 71 were unsold. From the 405 players shortlisted for the auction, 254 were not put up for bidding.

A total of seven players went unsold in the highest reserve price category of Rs 2 crore, including Jimmy Neesham, Tom Banton, Travis Head, Chris Jordan and others.