(Cricket news) Sam Curran became the most expensive signing in the history of IPL as the Punjab Kings forked out a massive 18.50 crores for the England all-rounder at 2023 auction. The signing subsequently surpassed the 16.25 crores that Rajasthan Royals paid for Chris Morris at the 2021 auction which was the previous record for a player signed at the auction.

Punjab entered the bidding battle at the 13.50 crore mark after the Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings were seriously battling for the recently crowned Player of the Tournament at the T20 World Cup in Australia. The Kings staved off competition from CSK, Lucknow SuperGiants and another late attempt from Mumbai Indians to land the player at a record price.

The five-time champions, however, had their own marquee signing when they dished out the second-highest signing amount for the Australian fast bowling all rounder at 17.50 crores. The . Mumbai Indians began the bidding battle with Royal Challengers Bangalore as they went all the way to sign the 23-year-old, who will be the replacement for Kiron Pollard. He gave a glimpse of his abilities opening the batting for Australia in a short T20I series just before the T20 World Cup against England and Sri Lanka

All-rounders were the flavour of the auction with Ben Stokes being signed for INR 16.25 crores by the Chennai Super Kings rounding off a frantic first-two rounds of this year’s IPL auction. CSK lost out on bringing Curran back to Chennai as they entered the bidding late for the English Test captain and outlasted Lucknow SuperGiants’ attempts to sign him. Nicholas Pooran also shelled out a massive 16 crores for the West Indies as he went to the Lucknow SuperGiants who have three full time keepers in De Kock, KL Rahul and now Pooran.

Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad were the early big spenders of the auction, forking out a combined some of 21.5 crores for the services of Harry Brook (INR 13.25 Cr) and Mayank Agarwal (INR 8.25 cr). The Englishman won the Player of the Series award in the recently concluded Test series sweep of Pakistan as he sparked a furious bidding battle between SRH and the Rajasthan Royals. RR were happy to bid INR 13 crore even if it would have left them with just 20 lakhs in the purse but were prized out by Sunrisers, who then wrestled their way against CSK to get Mayank AgarwaL. The Royals eventually did get themselves an all-rounder in the form of Jason Holder for INR 5.75 crores.

Also read: Pant and Iyer to the rescue as India take a lead of 87 runs