352 players, 66 purchased, hundreds ignored and an Englishman cricketing history, the 2017 IPL auction summed up in an enthralling manner. In Bengaluru, many expectations were matched, as that of Ben Stokes, who was the costliest buy of the day going for a towering 14.5 crore to Rising Pune Supergiants.
By the look of his price tag, he also became the most expensive foreign buy in history of IPL auction, surpassing the likes of Shane Watson, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff. Apart from him, few of the overseas players like Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult, Chris Woakes also went for huge bucks.
Given the absence of Mitchell Starc from the lucrative league, Bangalore roped in England fast-bowler Tymal Mills, who was purchased for an amount of 12 crore, second most expensive to that of Stokes.
Keeping aside the glitters of the showdown, there were few disappointing moments too. For Indian fans, no one spilled money on bowlers Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan. Number one T20 bower, Imran Tahir was also not picked, while Afghanistan’s hard-hitting opener Mohammad Shahzad failed to pick any buyers for himself too.
Since, the sell-off for the 10th season of cash-rich league is over, franchises would now sit and have a brief look at their respective squads to figure out the best eleven. At Sportzwiki, we will bring the best XI of all teams: