England star all-rounder Sam Curran was signed for a record £1.85m in the Indian Premier League auction, while new batting sensation Harry Brook was snapped up for just over £1.3m.
The deal makes Brook the second most expensive English player to be sold at an IPL auction behind only Ben Stokes in 2017.
The Yorkshire and England star, who scored 468 runs at both an average and strike rate of over 93 in the recent Test series in Pakistan, was ultimately signed by Sunrisers Hyderabad after a bidding war also involving Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The 23-year-old has 372 runs at a strike rate of almost 138 in 20 T20 international appearances for England and was part of their T20 World Cup winning side in Australia in November.
Brook’s eventual price in rupees of 13.25 crore was almost nine times his base price of 1.5 crore, while he also became the most expensive specialist batter ever sold at a mini auction, smashing West Indies batter Shimron Hetmyer’s previous record of 7.75 crore.
Joe Root went unsold at his base price of one crore, just over £100,000, as he did in his only previous appearance in the IPL auction back in 2018. There is still a chance for him to be claimed later on in the team-building process.
More to follow…
