England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the most expensive overseas buy ever, going to Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping Rs14.50 crore, even as some unheralded Indian players trumped seasoned names to land lucrative deals at the IPl players’ auction in Bengaluru on Monday.
The uncapped Indian players had a field day too with little-known Tamil Nadu left-arm seamer T Natarajan going for Rs3 crore to Kings XI Punjab, a 30-fold hike over his base price.
For senior Test players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, it turned out to be an embarrassment as both went unsold at their base prices of Rs50 lakh and Rs2 crore respectively. Irfan Pathan too went unsold at his Rs 50 lakh base price.