England’s Sam Curran has become the most expensive auction buy in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after being bought by Punjab Kings for £1.85m.
Six franchises made a bid for the 24-year-old all-rounder before Punjab were eventually successful.
Yorkshire’s Harry Brook has been sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for £1.35m.
The 23-year-old was the leading run-scorer for England in their recent 3-0 Test series win in Pakistan.
Curran was named player of the tournament at this year’s Twenty20 World Cup after helping England to become double white-ball world champions.
He took 13 wickets at an average of 11.38 in last month’s event in Australia and has improved his batting to become a genuine all-rounder.
“Back to where it all started! Looking forward to it,” Curran tweeted.
The previous most expensive IPL player was South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris, who was signed by Rajasthan Royals for £1.6m in April 2021.
That figure was overtaken again on Friday when Mumbai Indians paid £1.75m for Australian all-rounder Cameron Green.
England red-ball captain and all-rounder Ben Stokes was acquired for £1.63m by Chennai Super Kings – one of the franchises to miss out on Curran.
Adil Rashid will join Brook in Hyderabad, while Will Jacks and Reece Topley have been signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals took Phil Salt.
Former Test captain Joe Root initially went unsold but was later bought by Rajasthan Royals for £100,000.
Left arm seamer Josh Little became the first Ireland player to win a full IPL contract as he was signed by Gujarat Titans for nearly £450,000.
England’s 18-year-old leg spinner Rehan Ahmed, Tom Curran and Chris Jordan all went unsold.
