IPL Auction 2018: Ben Stokes Remains Most Expensive Buy, Bumper Deal For Jaydev Unadkat

England all-rounder Ben Stokes remained the most expensive buy, while Jaydev Unadkat bagged a bumper deal to become the costliest Indian player in the IPL Player Auction 2018, which ended after two days of frenzied bidding on Sunday at Bengaluru. A total of 169 players were sold (56 overseas) as eight teams spent almost their entire purse of Rs 80 crore to make their full squad for the IPL season 11. Defending champions Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils bought a maximum of 25 players each while Royal Challengers Bangalore snapped up 24 players, Rajasthan Royals 23, Kings XI Punjab 21 and Kolkata Knight Riders 19.

Left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat became the most expensive Indian player after he attracted a bid of Rs 11.50 crore from the Rajasthan Royals. Unadkat beat KL Rahul and Manish Pandey who bagged Rs 11 crore contracts on the opening day of the auction on Saturday. Rahul was sold to Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), while Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) picked up Pandey.

Unadkat is the second most expensive buy this year after England all-rounder Ben Stokes, who was also bought by Rajasthan for Rs 12.50 crore. While it appeared to be a battle between KXIP and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for Unadkat, Rajasthan made a quiet entry towards the end to win the bid for him. Australia pacer Andrew Tye also pocketed a Rs 7.2 crore contract from Kings XI Punjab. 

West Indies batting superstar Chris Gayle was picked up by Kings XI Punjab for his base price of Rs 2 crore at the auction. Interestingly, no team, including his parent franchise of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), moved a muscle when the big Jamaican's name came up on two occasions, once as part of the marquee players and then as an unsold player.

The auctioneer, Richard Medley, then asked teams to submit a list of players they wanted to be recalled. Gayle, who was among those 15 players, was snapped up by Punjab.

Sandeep Lamichhane created history to become the first Nepal cricketer to be bought by an Indian Premier League franchise. Lamichhane was picked up by the Delhi Daredevils for his base price Rs 20 lakh. Canada wicketkeeper Tariq Hamza and Lamichhane were the only two players part from Associate nations in the 580-player auction list.

Karnataka all-rounder Gowtham Krishnappa earned himself a massive payday on Day 2 as Rajasthan Royals shelled out a whopping Rs 6.20 crore for him. Given that his base price was Rs 20 lakh, the 29-year-old hit a day dirt with a deal 31 times that value. Last season, Mumbai Indians bought Gowtham for Rs 2 crore. Gowtham became Rajasthan's first buy on Day 2 of the auction.

Sold players on Day 2:

Chennai Super Kings: Shardul Narendra Thakur(Rs 2.6 crore), Murali Vijay (Rs 2 crore), Mark Wood (Rs 1.50 crore), Sam Billings (1 crore), Deepak Chahar (80 lakh), Mitchell Santner (Rs 50 lakh), Lungisani Ngidi (Rs 50lakh), Asif K M (Rs 40lakh), N Jagadeesan (Rs 20 lakh), Kanishk Seth (Rs 20 lakh), Monu Singh(Rs 20 lakh), Dhruv Shorey (Rs 20 lakh), Kshitiz Sharma (Rs 20 lakh), Chaitanya Bishnoi (Rs 20 lakh).

Delhi Daredevils: Shahbaz Nadeem (Rs 3.20 crore), Trent Boult (Rs 2.20 crore), Daniel Christian (Rs 1.50 crore), Naman Ojha (Rs 1.40 crore), Gurkeerat Singh Mann (Rs 75 lakh), Abhishek Sharma (Rs 55 lakh), Jayant Yadav(Rs 50 lakh), Manjot Kalra (Rs 20 lakh), Sandeep Lamichhane (Rs 20 lakh), Sayan Ghosh (Rs 20 lakh).

Kings XI Punjab: Andrew Tye(Rs 7.20 crore), Mujeeb Zadran (Rs 4 crore), Mohit Sharma (Rs 2.40 crore), Barinder Singh Sran (Rs 2.20 crore), Chris Gayle (Rs 2 crore),Ben Dwarshuis (Rs 1.40 crore), Akshdeep Nath (Rs 1 crore), Manoj Tiwary (Rs 1 crore), Manzoor Dar (Rs 20 lakh), Pardeep Sahu (Rs 20 lakh), Mayank Dagar (Rs 20 lakh). Kolkata Knight Riders: Shivam Mavi (Rs 3 crore), Mitchell Johnson (Rs 2 crore), Ranganath Vinay Kumar (Rs 1 crore), Rinku Singh (Rs 80 lakh), Cameron Delport (Rs 30 lakh), Javon Searless(Rs 30 lakh), Apoorv Vijay Wankhade (Rs 20 lakh).

Mumbai Indians: Evin Lewis (Rs 3.80 crore), Ben Cutting (Rs 2.20 crore), Rahul Chahar (Rs 1.90 crore), Pradeep Sangwan (Rs 1.50 crore), Jason Behrendorff (Rs 1.50 crore), Jean-Paul Duminy (Rs 1 crore), Saurabh Tiwary (Rs 80 lakh), Tajinder Dhillon (Rs 55 lakh), Akila Dhananjaya (Rs 50 lakh), Nidheesh M D Dinesan (Rs 20 lakh), Aditya Tare (Rs 20 lakh) Siddhesh Dinesh Lad (Rs 20 lakh), Mayank Markande (Rs 20 lakh) Sharad Lumba (Rs 20 lakh), Anukul Roy (Rs 20 lakh), Mohsin Khan (Rs 20 lakh).

Rajasthan Royals: Jaydev Unadkat(Rs 11.50 crore), Krishnappa Gowtham(Rs 6.20 crore), Dhawal Kulkarni(Rs 75 lakh), Zahir Khan Pakteen (Rs 60 lakh), Ben Laughlin (Rs 50 lakh), Dushmantha Chameera (Rs 50 lakh), Anureet Singh Bowler (Rs 30 lakh), Aryaman Vikram (Rs 30 lakh), Midhun S All-Rounder(Rs 20 lakh), Shreyas Gopal (Rs 20 lakh), Prashant Chopra (Rs 20 lakh), Jatin Saxena(Rs 20 lakh), Ankit Sharma (Rs 20 lakh), Mahipal Lomror (Rs 20 lakh).

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Washington Sundar(Rs 3.20 crore), Mohammed Siraj(Rs 2.60 crore), Nathan Coulter-Nile (Rs 2.20 crore), M. Ashwin (Rs 2.20 crore), Parthiv Patel Wicket Keeper(Rs 1.70 crore), Mandeep Singh (Rs 1.40 crore), Pawan Negi (Rs 1 crore), Tim Southee (Rs 1 crore), Pavan Deshpande (Rs 20 lakh), Anirudha Ashok Joshi(Rs 20 lakh).

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Sandeep Sharma (Rs 3 crore), Shreevats Goswami (Rs 1 crore), Mohammad Nabi (Rs 1 crore), Chris Jordan(Rs 1 crore), Billy StanlakeBatsman (Rs 50 lakh), Sachin Baby(Rs 20 lakh), Bipul Sharma, (Rs 20 lakh) Syed Mehdi Hasan(Rs 20 lakh), Tanmay Agarwal(Rs 20 lakh).

Unsold Players on Day 2:

Eoin Morgan, Angelo Mathews, Cameron White, Corey Anderson, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Colin Ingram, Moises Henriques, Ravi Bopara, Kyle Abbott, Travis Head, Jason Holder, Shaun Marsh, Michael Klinger, Lendl Simmons, Nathan Lyon, Peter Handscomb, Steven Finn, Harry Gurney, Tymal Mills, Dwayne Smith, Alex Hales, Dale Steyn, Samuel Badree, Tom Curran, Peter Siddle, Darren Bravo, Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor, Lockie Ferguson, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ross Taylor, Morne Morkel, Ishant Sharma, Usman Khawaja, Johnson Charles, Luke Ronchi, Adil Rashid, Joe Denly, Samit Patel, Adam Milne, Wayne Parnell, Marchant De Lange, Reeza Hendricks, John Hastings, Ronsford Beaton, Sikandar Butt, Graeme Cremer, Rishi Dhawan, Solomon Mire, Ryan McLaren, Parveez Rasool, Shabbir Rahaman, Vernon Philander, Mandeep Hardev Singh, Abul Raju, Paul Stirling, Malcolm Waller, Gulbadin Naib, Duanne Olivier, Dilshan Munaweera, Michael Beer, Thisara Perera, Anton Devcich, Seekkuge Prasanna, Ashton Agar, Sachithra Senanayaka,  Upul Tharanga, Glenn Phillips, Denesh Ramdin, Dawlat Zadran, Rahmat Shah Zarmatai, Aaron Phangiso, Dwaine Pretorius, Niroshan Dickwella,Beuran Hendricks, Lakshan Sandakan, David Wiese, Kusal Janith Perera Aravind Sreenath,Joe Burns, Asela Gunarathna, Dhananjaya Silva, Andile Phehlukwayo, Nicolas Pooran, Jonathan Carter, Rovman Powell, Sean Abbott, Ben Wheeler, Kesrick Williams, Irfan Pathan, Ashoke Dinda, Praveen Kumar, Alex Carey, Chadwick Walton, Pragyan Ojha, Jhye Richardson, Rahul Sharma, Joel Paris, Marlon Samuels, Andre Fletcher, Tamim Khan, Aiden Markram, Hilton Cartwright, Varun Aaron, Parvinder Awana, Dasun Shanka, Munaf Patel, Tom Latham, M Shahzad Mohammadi, Scott Boland, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Shannon Gabriel, Dawid Malan Faiz Fazal, Keshav Maharaj, Farhaan Behardien, Abhinav Mukund, Venugopal Rao, Dane Paterson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Seth Rance Fawad Ahmed, Tabrez Shamsi, Jon-Jon Trevor Smuts, Ashley Nurse, Scott Kuggeleijn, Dean Elgar, Robbie Frylinck, Wiaan Mulder, Neil Wagner, Shapoor Zadran, Vaughn Van Jaarsveld, Abhimanyu Mithun, Rayad Emrit, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Najibullah Zadran, Sheldon Cottrell, Matt Henry, Nuwan Kulasekara, Suranga Lakmal, Manpreet Gony, Isuru Udana Pankaj Singh, Sudeep Tyagi, Thomas Helm, Rajat Bhatia, Kevon Cooper, Mitchell Swepson, Tom Cooper, Eklavya Dwivedi, Michael Neser, Iqbal Abdullah, Christiaan Jonker, Roshon Primus, Gurvinder Singh, Vishnu Solanki, Alex Ross, Daniel Hughes, Ishwar Chandra Pandey, Manprit Juneja, Vyshak Vijay Kumar, Junior Dala, Jaydev Shah, Shelly Shaurya, Tejas Singh Baroka, Ashok Menaria, Pravin Tambe, Vignesh Moorthy, Arjun Nair, Hanuma Vihari, Amit Mishra, Jalaj Saxena, Pawan Suyal, Harmeet Singh, Ishan Porel, Baba Aparajith, Unmukt Chand.

(With PTI inputs)