Highlights IPL Auction 2017: Ben Stokes, Tymal Mills emerge top buys at close of event

Top 10 buys:

Ben Stokes (Rising Pune Supergiants): Rs 14.50 crore.

Tymal Mills (Royal Challengers Bangalore): Rs 12 crore.

Trent Boult (Kolkata Knight Riders): Rs 5 crore.

Kagiso Rabada (Delhi Daredevils): Rs 5 crore.

Pat Cummins (Delhi Daredevils): Rs 4.5 crore.

Chris Woakes (Kolkata Knight Riders): Rs 4.2 crore.

Rashid Khan Arman (Sunrisers Hyderabad): Rs 4 crore.

Nathan Coulter-Nile (Kolkata Knight Riders): Rs 3.5 crore.

Karn Sharma (Mumbai Indians): Rs 3.2 crore.

T Natarajan (Kings XI Punjab): Rs 3 crore.

IPL 2017 auction: From Ishant Sharma to Imran Tahir, complete list of players who went unsoldhttp://www.firstpost.com

Click on this list to glance through the players who missed out on an IPL contract this year.

IPL 2017 auction: From Ben Stokes to Eoin Morgan, list of players sold so farhttp://www.firstpost.com

Click on the above article to go through the full list of players who were sold in the IPL 2017 auction.

27 overseas players, including two Afghans were bought. In all 66 cricketers went under the hammer. Not much space for teams to manouver. Mumbai had a solid core, as indeed RCB, RPS, GL and the rest. Ben Stokes going for Rs 14.5 crore was story of the day. Probably got more than double from his Pakistan and Big Bash salareis put together.Good purse for Indian youngsters T Natarajan (3 cr), Varun Aaron (2.8 cr), Md Siraj (2.6 crore) Karn Sharma (3.2cr), K Gowthan (2cr), Aniket Choudhry (2cr), , M Ashwin (1 cr).

Well that ended quicker than expected, but the day did throw in a few surprises towards the end of the day.

Chaitanya Bishnoi remains unsold as the re-presenatations come to an end, as does the player auction for the tenth edition of the cash-rich league.

Sayan Ghosh picked up 14 wickets in Indian T20 2016/17 season which is the second most by any bowler. His strike-rate of 12.2 is the best for any bowler who have taken more than 10 wickets in Indian T20 2016/17 season.

Kanishk Seth is not taken by anyone, while Lockie Ferguson is sold to RPS for Rs 50 lakh.

Manoj Tiwary scored 152 runs in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy while playing for Bengal and East Zone at an average of 50.66 and a strike rate of 143.39. He scored 643 runs in Ranji Trophy 2016/17 at an average of 49.46 which is the most by any Bengal batsman in Ranji Trophy 2016/17.

Sayan Ghosh sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for a sum of Rs 10 lakh.

Manoj Tiwary sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for Rs 50 lakh. South African all-rounder David Wiese though, gets no takers in what is his third and final chance.

KKR bid for Darren Bravo for Rs 50 lakh, and that is the final deal as far as the West Indian left-handed batsman is concerned.

Aksh Deep Nath goes to Gujarat for Rs 10 lakh.

Venky Mysore: “Eden Gardens pitch has changed. So we are going for pacers also. We have good spinners. Needed pacemen as pitches in the country are changing. So we went for Trent Boult, Nathan Coulter Nile. Watch out for Ruvman Powell. We have a team in CPL and he’s known as junior Andre Russell there. Very exciting player. Our ex-coach Trevor Bayliss is England coach He said Chris Woakes will become world class all round bowler — new ball and slog overs. So we are very happy."

A total of eight unsold players will go under the hammer again after the brief interval.

Break taken at the moment. We’ll be back shortly.

Ishank Jaggi scored three fifties in his last four T20 innings. Moreover, he was the fourth highest run-scorer (278 runs at an average of 46.33 and a strike rate of 139.00) in India’s 2016-17 season in T20 cricket. He also now holds the record of scoring most runs in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He has scored 1246 runs from 47 matches in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at an average of 34.61 and a strike rate of 120.03. Jaggi was also the highest scorer for Jharkhand in Ranji Trophy 2016-17 season as he scored 890 runs from 10 matches at an average of 59.33 with four centuries.

Hardly a bid now. Siraj, Hyderabad’s 22 year-old fast bowler went for Rs 2.6 crore. Fierce bidding there. Otherwise a rather dull finishing stage of the auction. Rs 10 lakh players being mopped up without bidding. May be some big players could sneak in now for a low price though.

Now the franchises can pick upto three names who have gone unsold so far, with a maximum of 24 unsold players going under the hammer once again in the next round.

Pratham Singh is the last name in this section, and he goes to Gujarat Lions for Rs 10 lakh.

No takers for Ashton Turner at Rs 10 lakh. KKR though, rope in Sanjay Yadav and Ishank Jaggi for Rs 10 lakh. Rahul Tripathi goes to RPS for Rs 10 lakh.

No takers for Amit Verma, or for Himmat Singh.

Shubam Agrawal sold to Gujarat Lions for Rs 10 lakh.

Munaf Patel last played an IPL match on May 21, 2013 (for MI v CSK at Delhi). Since 2015, he has taken only three wickets in T20 cricket from 11 matches.

Gujarat Lions bag Shelley Shaurya for Rs 10 lakh.

No bids for Baba Indrajith at Rs 10 lakh.

No takers for Bangladeshi all-rounders Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Sabbir Rahman and Mahmudullah. 

Gujarat Lions bag UAE’s Chirag Suri for Rs 10 lakh.

No takers for Tajendra Singh and Virat Singh. The latter put up blazing performances for East Zone in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, though that was not enough to impresss the franchise bosses.

Black Cap Ben Wheeler finds no takers either. As does Kesrick Williams from the West Indies, priced at Rs 30 lakh.

Colin de Grandhomme and Andile Phehlukwayo go unsold. As is the case with South African Dwaine Pretorius.

Milind Tandon and K Khejroliya go to RPS and MI respectively, both for Rs 10 lakh.

No takers for H Bhatia. Rinku Singh, though, goes to KXIP for Rs 10 lakh, as is the case with Shashank Singh to DD for the same price.

Gujarat Lions express interest at Munaf Patel, priced at Rs 30 lakh. That remains the only bid for Patel, who will now play in the Suresh Raina-captained franchise. 

No takers for Kiwis Mitchell Santner and Lockie Ferguson. Santner, incidentally, shot to fame after triggering a collapse in the ICC World T20 match against India last year.

Two-time World T20-winning captain Darren Sammy now into the fray, with KXIP making the opening bid at Rs 30 lakh. That is the only bid, and the wooden spooners in the previous edition gain his services.

KKR make the opening bid for West Indian Rovman Powell at Rs 30 lakh, and the Gautam Gambhir-led side secure his services.

Wayne Parnell is next in the list. No bid for him either.

Jimmy Neesham, New Zealand all-rounder, is unsold for Rs 50 lakh after a lack of bids.

Dan Christian sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for Rs 1 crore. Colin Munro, who holds the record for the second-fastest T20I fifty, remains unsold though.

Ben Laughlin picked up nine wickets in BBL 2016/17 with an eco, rate of 6.09. His economy rate is the second least among all the bowlers who had taken five or more wickets in BBL 2016/17. However, his career T20 economy rate is 7.61. He has taken 121 wickets from 97 T20s so far.

Asela Gunaratne, who put up a spectacular match-winning 84 for Sri Lanka against Australia, going under the hammer now. Mumbai Indians make the opening bid, with nobody else expressing any interest whatsover. 

Joe Burns, Australian opener, comes into the picture at Rs 30 lakh. No one interested in him though.

Interesting buy Bily Stanlake for RCB. He stands 6'10" tall. Just 22 years of age. Right arm fast bowler, left hand bat. Australia have high hopes on the youngster. Has pace and gets steep bounce. One for the future.

RPS open the bid for Saurabh Kumar, and secure his services for Rs 10 lakh.

Rising Pune Supergiants secure Rahul Chahar for Rs 10 lakh.

Tug-of-war for Mohammed Siraj, with SRH securing his services for Rs 2.6 crore.

No takers for either Sayan Ghosh or Kanishk Seth.

No takers for either Sayan Ghosh or Kanishk Seth.

Rishi Arothe and West Indian Ronsford Beaton too do not get any offers.

No bid for either Dishant Yagnik or Pankaj Jaswal.

None for Akhil Herwadkar, opening batsman for Mumbai in the Indian domestic circuit.

Himanshu Rana, with a tag of Rs 10 lakh, goes unsold. As do Apoorv Wankhade and Akash Bhandari.

Another Aussie after Laughlin, and Billy Stanlake gets an opening bid from Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 30 lakh.

Ben Laughlin gets a nod from Sunrisers at Rs 30 lakh, and the defending champions secure him for the tenth edition.

None for Thisara Perera, Parvez Rasool, David Wiese.

Manoj Tiwary, priced at Rs 50 lakh, fails to get any bids either.

Mitchell Swepson, who is part of the Australia squad for the India tour, remains unsold this year. Similar fate for West Indian batsmen Darren Bravo and Evin Lewis.

Nathan Coulter Nile hasn’t played a single FC/List-A/T20 match since July 2016. He last played an ODI match on June 26, 2016 against West Indies at Bridgetown.

Navdeep Saini goes to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 10 lakh in the second chance that he gets in the day. None for Mayank Dagar though.

No takers for Aksh Deep Nath, Vishnu Vinod.

No bids for Unmukt Chand. RCB express interest in Praveen Dubey, and hire him for Rs 10 lakh.

Imran Tahir under the hammer once again, and no luck this time either, as was the case with Ish Sodhi, another spinner from the southern hemisphere before him.

No bid for Rs 30-lakh priced Pragyan Ojha.

Ishant Sharma is the next name in the list, and no bids for him yet again. Why, one wonders? Well fitness woes for one, and his reputation as a Test specialist these days being the other. 

Intense battle for Nathan Coulter-Nile in the second-offering, with the bid escalating to 3 cr in no time from his base price of Rs 1 crore. KKR finally bag NCN’s services for Rs 3.5 crore. Turns out to be the most expensive in the re-presentation so far.

No one bids for Hampshire’s South African import Kyle Abbott either.

Jason Roy has scored the third most runs (173 runs from five matches) in Pakistan Super League 2016-17 so far. He was also the second highest run-scorer of recently concluded India-England ODI series 2016/17 as he scored 220 runs from three ODIs. However, he had a below par T20I series (2016/17) against India as he scored only 61 runs from three matches. He has a career T20 strike rate of 144.49 and an average of 28.45 with four centuries.

Targeted bidding post lunch. Just the players teams want to complete their squad. Quick and clean sale of 3 players to set the tone for the afternoon. Guptill, Jason Roy, Saurabh Tiwary all sold. But not Sean Abbot. Wonder why the team asked for him. As a cover perhaps

Next set, we have the wicketkeepers, and we start off with Jonny Bairstow, who remains unsold at Rs 1.50 crore.

No takers for Irfan Pathan in the re-presentation.

England all-rounder Chris Jordan is sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 50 lakh. Jordan is considered among the best death bowlers as well as a handy bat down the order, and could be an asset for SRH.

Saurabh Tiwary manages to find luck with Mumbai Indians, who hire his services for Rs 30 lakh. Sean Abbott though, isn’t as lucky as he continues to remain unsold.

Very engaging pre-lunch session. Post-lunch may not be as busy considering that most franchises have more or less formed their squads. But there’s still a lot of filling-in-the-blanks to be done. I’d be very surprised if matchwinners like Jason Roy, Martin Guptill remain unsold.

Also, India players like Ishant Sharma, Parvez Rasool and even Cheteshwar Pujara not finding buyers would be a travesty.

Jason Roy is the next player to get re-presented, and this time gets picked by Gujarat Lions for Rs 1 crore. So far so good, as far as the re-presentation is concerned.

Martin Guptill scored a fifty (for New Zealand v Australia) and a century (for Auckland v Central D) respectively in his last two List-A innings. He has scored the second most runs (1806 runs at an average of 34.73 and a strike rate of 131.44) for New Zealand in T20Is. However, he scored only 111 runs against India in an ODI series in India from five matches at an average of 22.20.

Martin Guptill goes under the hammer again in the second half, and after getting ignored in the first round, goes to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 50 lakh.

Each franchise has to draw a list of a maximum of 20 players, who either were unsold in the morning session, or were not included in the auction list in the first place. They are to go under the hammer in the second half of the day.

The second article lists all the players who have failed to get any bids in the auction so far, though they should not lose hope as yet, as they could under the hammer again in the latter half of the day.

IPL 2017 auction: From Ishant Sharma to Jason Roy, list of players unsold so farhttp://www.firstpost.com

Click on the link below to go through the full list of players who have been sold in the auction so far.

IPL 2017 auction: From Ben Stokes to Eoin Morgan, list of players sold so farhttp://www.firstpost.com

Highest ratio of bid to base price in IPL-10 auction so far:
 
30 – T Natarajan
24 – Tymal Mills
20 – K Gowtham
20 – Aniket Choudhary
10.7 – Karn Sharma

Sunrisers Hyderabad
Tanmany Agarwal
Mohammad Nabi
Ekalvya Dwivedi
Rashid Khan
Pravin Tambe

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Pawan Negi
Tymal Mills
Aniket Choudhary

Rising Pune Supergiant
Ben Stokes
Jaydev Unadkat

Mumbai Indians
Nicholas Pooran
Mitchell Johnson
K Gowtham
Karn Sharma

Kolkata Knight Riders
Trent Boult
Chris Woakes
Rishi Dhawan

Kings XI Punjab
Eoin Morgan
Rahul Tewatia
T Natarajan
Matt Henry
Varun Aaron

Gujarat Lions
Nathu Singh
Basil Thampi
Tejas Baroka
Manpreet Gony

Players bought so far:

Delhi Daredevils

Angelo Mathews

Corey Anderson

Kagiso Rabada

Pat Cummins

Ankit Bawne

Aditya Tare

Murugan Ashwin

Here’s the total funds left with each franchise:

Delhi Daredevils: Rs 9.25 crore

Kings XI Punjab: Rs 14.80 crore

Kolkata Knight Riders: Rs 10 crore

Mumbai Indians: Rs 4.05 crore

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Rs 2.82 crore

Sunrisers Hyderabad (no buys): Rs 15.65 crore

Gujarat Lions (no buys): Rs 12.30 crore

Rising Pune Supergiants: Rs 2.70 crore

Top five buys so far: 

Ben Stokes: Rs 14.50 crore. 

Tymal Mills: Rs 12 crore. 

Trent Boult: Rs 5 crore

Kagiso Rabada: Rs 5 crore

Pat Cummins: Rs 4.5 crore

In the morning session of IPL Auction 2017, 33 players (out of more than a 100) were picked up by the eight franchises. After the blockbuster sales of Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills in the first half of the session, it was relatively sedate with teams picking up uncapped Indian players even as there was demand for young Indian pacers like Aniket Chaudhary and T. Natarajan. 

The bidding heated up with the pick of second Afghan player to be selected in this auction, leggie Rashid Khan by SRH, followed by Chris Woakes to KKR and Karn Sharma to Mumbai Indians. 

Surprise high draw was the Karnataka Allrounder K Gowtham for 200 Lakhs by Mumbai Indians.

Mixed bag from Delhi Daredevils whom Gaurav Kapur called as “Keeper of Keepers” who picked another Wicket Keeper in Aditya Tare and couple more overseas allrounders when they already had two, but made two solid picks with pacers Kagiso Rabada and Pat Cummins. 

RCB still seem to have performed the best in the auction so far adding Aniket Chaudhry, Pawan Negi and key pacer Tymal MIlls. 

Lunch time at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Bengaluru, the venue for the auction. We’ll be back with the auction at 2 pm.

Varun Aaron after IPL-9:

In First Class cricket: M – 4, W – 13, Ave – 26.23
In T20 cricket: M – 4, W – 8, Ave – 17.75, SR -12.0, Eco. – 8.87

Rahul Sharma, the last player of the morning session, remains unsold. Each of the franchises now have to submit a list of 20 players who they would like to be reconsidered for the auction — whether unsold players or those who were not part of the auction catalog.

Australia’s Michael Beer and Akila Dananjaya remain unsold, as does leading off-spinner Nathan Lyon (well to be honest, he is not a leading name in limited-overs cricket).

Last set before the lunch break, and we have another round of spinners going under the hammer. Pakistan-born Australian spinner Fawad Ahmed goes unsold.

Manpreet Gony is the last player from this set, and Gujarat open the bid at 30 lakh. Gujarat eventually secure his services for 60 lakh.

Matt Henry’s career T20 bowling strike rate is 21.2 and his career T20 batting strike rate is 166.44. He has picked up the third most wickets (22) among New Zealand bowlers since January 2016 in ODIs.

Varun Aaron, India’s fastest pacer among its current generation of cricketers, is locked in a tug of war between KXIP and GL. Looks like KXIP want to add to their bowling arsenal, though it ends up costing them Rs 2.80 crore.

No takers for Australia’s Ben Laughlin.

Rising Pune Supergiants make their first purchase since Ben Stokes, getting Jaydev Unadkat for Rs 30 lakh.

New Zealand pacer Matt Henry is sold to KXIP for Rs 50 lakh. No takers for Australia’s Billy Stanlake.

That brings us to an end to the second wicketkeepers’ list. Now we move on to the second set of pacers for the day. RP Singh is the first name that pops up, though nobody’s interested.

K Gowtham speaks!

“I have waited for this moment for a longtime. Now that I have been picked by an IPL team it feels nice, actually it’s hard to express how I feel now. I attended the Mumbai Indians trials and was hoping I would get a contract this season. I have attended RCB trials a few years ago. I believe, the contract is a result of my good showing in domestic season. The price is bonus because I wasn’t looking at money, my only aim was making it to a team. That done, I’m looking forward to an opportunity to showcase my skills on the IPL platform. I watched the proceedings at home. I wasn’t nervous in the morning and went about my routine which included a light workout. But as the auction began I was nervous because this was the first time I was going under the hammer in IPL 
 At Mumbai Indians I’m looking forward to working with and learning from Harbhajan Singh who is my role model.”

No takers for Brad Haddin. Neither are there any for New Zealand keeper-batsman Glenn Phillips.

Former Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin is next. Can he get any takers?

Sri Lanka’s Kusal Janith Perera, often compared to Sanath Jayasuriya for his batting style, doesn’t get any bids. Neither does his team-mate Niroshan Dickwella.

With that the second all-rounders’ set is concluded. Next is the second set of wicket-keepers.

Bangladesh’s Anamul Haque and West Indies’ Shane Dowrich are the first members of this list, and are unsold.

Sri Lanka’s Thisara Perera and South Africa’s Farhaan Behardien are unsold!

Rishi Dhawan, who had played for KXIP last season, is sold to KKR for Rs 55 lakh.

Karn Sharma took 12 wickets in recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy while playing for Central Zone and Railways which is the joint fourth most by any bowler. His economy rate of 6.41 was also the third best among all the bowlers who picked up 10 or more wickets in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He was one of the seven all-rounders who scored 200-plus runs and took 30-plus wickets in Ranji Trophy 2016-17.

South African all-rounder David Wiese fails to get any bids.

Karn Sharma sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 3.2 crore.

Chris Woakes has taken 87 wickets in his T20 career from 86 matches at an average of 26.10 and a strike rate of 19.3. Moreover, he has scored 656 runs his T20 career with a strike rate of 138.39. Since January 2016, he has taken the second most no. of wickets for England in international cricket at an average of 28.73 and a strike rate of 45.2.

Mumbai Indians open the bid for Karn Sharma, with the bid soon touching 1 crore from Rs 30 lakh.

Jason Holder, who had played for KKR in the previous edition, remains unsold with a base price of Rs 1.50

England bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes, yet to make an IPL appearance, starts off at Rs 2 crore. KKR open the bid, and eventually secure him for Rs 4.20 crore!

Really excellent development for Associate players with Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan becoming the first Afghani players to be picked in the IPL. Nabi has shown his utility as an allrounder in the Pakistan Super League and it looks like Rashid Khan’s exploits in World T20 2016 is still fresh in the IPL franchise’s minds, drawing 400 Lakhs from SRK after an extending bidding back and forth. 

Next set is that of all-rounders, and Parveez Rasool is the first name in this list. Unsold!

No bids in this set, with Nic Maddinson too going unsold.

No bids for fellow West Indians Evin Lewis (50 lakh) and Darren Bravo (50 lakh).

No takers for West Indian batting all-rounder Marlon Samuels, who has been part of the team’s successful ICC World T20 campaigns.

Subramanium Badrinath, with a base price of Rs 30 lakh, fails to get any bids either.

Biggest surprise was the bidding war for young 18-year-old Afghan leg spinner Rashid Khan. He can also bat a bit. Hard hitting lower order batsman. Went for a whopping 4 crores to SunRisers Hyderabad. Big boost for Afghan cricketers.

Australia’s Michael Klinger, who led Perth Scorchers to victory in the final of the recently-concluded Big Bash League, remains unsold.

Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhinav Mukund too remain unsold.

Next set is that of batsmen. Manoj Tiwary is the first in this list, and he fails to get any bids.

Pravin Tambe:
Indian T20 2016-17 season: M – 7, W – 8, Ave – 24.12
IPL 2012-13: M – 3, W – 1, Ave – 88.80
IPL 2013-14: M – 13, W – 15, Ave – 23.73
IPL 2014-15: M – 10, W – 7, Ave – 38.00
IPL 2015-16: M – 7, W – 5, Ave – 28.60

Pravin Tambe, having played for Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Lions in the past, is sold to  SRH for 10 lakh.

No bids for Akshay Wakhare.

Rashid Khan has taken the joint most wickets in last one year in T20Is. He has picked up 25 wickets at an average of 14.04 and a strike rate of 14.6. His career T20 economy rate is 6.03.

Mitchell Swepson, who is part of the Australia squad for the Test series against India, doesn’t get any bids.

Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan is sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for a sum of Rs 4 crore! He is the second Afghan to be sold today, and for a decent sum that too!

Murugan Ashwin picked up 10 wickets from nine matches in India T20 2016-17 season at a strike rate of 21.6. He also picked up the joint second most no. of wickets in Tamil Nadu Premier League 2016. He picked up 13 wickets from eight matches at an average of 17.07 and a strike rate of 14.3.

Sarabjeet Ladda remains unsold.

Tejas Baroka is sold to Gujarat Lions for Rs 10 lakh.

Mayank Dagar remains unsold.

The ‘other Ashwin’s’ bid touches the 1 crore mark, and that is the price he is sold to Delhi Daredevils for.

Murugan Ashwin, who was part of Rising Pune Supergiants last year, is the first player in this list. Delhi Daredevils open the bid.

Next set is that of uncapped spinners. Meanwhile the lunch break is scheduled for 12.30

Natarajan went for Rs 3 crore to KXIP. The left arm medium pacer should handy at the death with his yorkers.

Basil Thampy goes to Gujarat Lions for Rs 85 lakh. Gujarat make their second purchase as a result, with the uncapped pacers list coming to an end right now.

T Natarajan’s superb bowling against Karnataka where he bowled yorkers at will at the death has served the TN left arm fast bowler well. He has been on the radar ever since the TNPL where he excelled.

Umar Nazir, Navdeep Saini, Pawan Suyal remain unsold.

Gujarat Lions make their first purchase, purchasing Nathu Singh for Rs 50 lakh.

Nathu Singh, who had played for Mumbai Indians in the previous edition, starts off at Rs 30 lakh. Gujarat, who are yet to make a purchase, open the bid.

T. Natarajan took the third most no. of wickets (24) for Tamil Nadu in Ranji Trophy 2016/17 season. He also took 10 wickets from seven matches at a strike rate of 16.2 in Tamil Nadu Premier League 2016/17.

T Natarajan is sold to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 3 crore!

And now we have SRH and KXIP in the fray, with the bid now escalating to Rs 3 crore!

T Natarajan is the next player in the uncapped list. RPS open the bid, with KXIP giving them a tough competition to drag the bid to Rs 95 lakh. KKR joins in, with the bid crossing Rs 1 crore!

Aniket Choudhary is now sold for Rs 2 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore! Well that’s a surprise.

RCB are joined by Gujarat Lions, who are yet to make a purchase in this auction. And Gujarat Lions. Intense battle to secure this lad’s services, with the bid crossing the 1 crore mark in no time.

Aniket Choudhary’s bid now crosses the 1 crore mark, with Gujarat looking to secure their first purchase.

Aditya Tare in 2016/17:
Ranji Trophy: Inn – 19, Runs – 623, Ave – 38.93
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Inn- 8, Runs – 248, Ave – 41.33, SR – 157.96

Aniket Choudhary is the next player in the set, with RCB opening the bid at Rs 10 lakh.

Uncapped pacers now. Abu Nechim Ahmed is the first player in this category, with a base price of Rs 10 lakh.

Mohit Ahlawat, of the ‘300 in a park fame, is unsold for Rs 10 lakh. Manvinder Bisla, too remains unsold.

K. Gowtham scored 113 runs Karnataka Premier League 2016-17 at a strike rate of 171.21 from eight matches. His strike rate was the second best among all the batsmen who scored more than 100 runs in that tournament. Recently, he scored 74 runs against Australia-A. His strike rate in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was 185.24 where he scored 113 runs from five matches.

Mohammad Shahzad, Afghan wicketkeeper-batsman remains unsold with a base price of Rs 50 lakh. He had lit up the ICC World T20, and is considered one of the best in the format among associate nations.

Eklavya Dwivedi is the next uncapped keeper to get sold, going to SRH for Rs 75 lakh.

IPL 2017 auctions: From Ben Stokes to Eoin Morgan, list of players sold so farhttp://www.firstpost.com

Click on the above link to glance through all the players sold in the auction so far.

Aditya Tare, who was with SRH last year, is next at Rs 20 lakh. RPS opens the bid. And he is sold to DD for Rs 25 lakh.

Vishnu Vinod, the first player in this set, remains unsold. As is the case with Shreevats Goswami.

Manan Sharma, Rush Kalaria and Priyank Panchal remain unsold, ending the set. Next set is that of uncapped wicketkeepers.

Mohammad Nabi becomes the first Afghanistan player to play in Indian Premier League. He has taken the joint third most no. of wickets (27) since January 2016 in T20Is. His career T20I strike rate is 130.37. However, since January 2016, his strike rate in T20Is is 133.49. He is the only player to score 250-plus runs and take 25-plus wickets in T20Is since 2016.

Shivam Dube unsold.

Praveen Dubey is player No 42 in the list, and remains unsold.

Karnataka off spinner and hard-hitting batsman K Gowtham went for a whopping  Rs 2 crore to Mumbai Indians   against his base price of Rs 1 lakh. His good performance in the Karnataka Premier league and Ranji Trophy has not gone unnoticed. Effective, hardened cricketer.

Rahul Tewatia sold to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 25 lakh.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Lions are yet to make a purchase. Rahul Tewatia are the next franchise in the list.

Krishnappa Gowtham sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 2 crore!

Gowtham’s bid crosses 2 crore now, with SRH joining the race.

Krishnappa Gowtham is the next player in the list, and Mumbai Indians open the bid, which crosses Rs 1 crore in no time!

And we have our first Afghan player to play in the IPL, with Mohammad Nabi getting sold to SRH for Rs 30 lakh.

Mahipal Lomror is the next player, and he is unsold as well.

Tanmay Agarwal’s strike rate of 159.19 was the third highest in Indian T20 2016-17 season among batsmen who scored atleast 200 runs. He was the fifth highest run-scorer in Indian T20 2016-17 season as he scored 277 runs from seven matches at an average of 39.57.

Uncapped all-rounders is the next set, and Aksh Deep Nath is the first name to pop up in this list. Unsold.

Tanmay Agarwal is next at Rs 10 lakh. Sunrisers Hyderabad open and close the bid at Rs 10 lakh.

Asghar Stanikzai, one of the five Afghanistan players to make their debut in the IPL auction, remains unsold.

Ankeet Bawne’s average of 79.66 was the second best among players who scored atleast 100 runs in Indian T20 2016/17 season. He scored 687 runs for Maharashtra in Ranji Trophy 2016/17 which was the most by any Maharashtra player in Ranji Trophy 2016/17. He scored 687 runs from eight matches at an average of 57.25.

Whoa! Spin bowlers out of favour in the first round of bidding, and barring Ishant Sharma, all fast bowlers find buyers. Tymal Mills, new kid on the block, gets Rs 12 crore, Rabada and Boult get Rs 5 crore each, Pat Cummins comes in only a whit behind.

What does this tell us?

One, bowlers who are really quick, those who can swing the ball late and those with clever variations in pace to keep runs down in `death’ overs, are the most preferred. 

Spinners, despite the IPL being played on pitches traditionally favouring slow bowlers, have slipped down the pecking order. Blame it on the small boundaries and heavy duty bats.

Unmukt Chand, released by Mumbai Indians last year, is next at Rs 30 lakh. And he remains unsold.

Ankeet Bawne is the first uncapped batsman, sold to DD for Rs 10 lakh.

Here’s the total funds left with each franchise:
 
Delhi Daredevils: Rs 10.60 crore
 
Kings XI Punjab: Rs 21.35 crore
 
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rs 14.75 crore
 
Mumbai Indians: Rs 9.25 crore
 
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Rs 4.82 crore
 
Sunrisers Hyderabad : Rs 20.90 crore
 
Gujarat Lions: Rs 14.34 crore
 
Rising Pune Supergiants: Rs 3 crore