England batter Liam Livingstone fetched a staggering ₹11.50 crore deal from Punjab Kings, who also roped in West Indies fast bowler Odean Smith for ₹6 crore on the second day of the IPL auctions in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Among Indians, all-rounder Shivam Dube fetched ₹4 crore from Chennai Super Kings for his six-hitting abilities while Gujarat Titans bagged another out of favour multi-skilled player Vijay Shankar for ₹1.4 crore.
For their left-arm variety, second-string India pacers like Khaleel Ahmed and Chetan Sakariya got handsome deals of ₹5.25 crore and ₹4.20 crore, respectively. Swing bowler Vaibhav Arora reserved a place in the Punjab team for ₹2 crore.
Cheteshwar Pujara predictably went unsold at the auction while Ajinkya Rahane got a base price of ₹1 crore from Kolkata Knight Riders.
Singapore international Tim David fetched whopping ₹8.25 crore winning bid from Mumbai Indians, who also bought England fast bowler Jofra Archer for ₹8 crore although he won’t be playing this season.
Sunrisers Hyderabad paid ₹7.75 crore for Windies all rounder Romario Shepherd and ₹2.4 crore for Australian seamer Sean Abbott.
India U-19 allrounder Raj Bawa who made a mark in the recently concluded U-19 World Cup, went to Punjab Kings for ₹2 crore while his captain Yash Dhull was bagged by Delhi Capitals for ₹50 lakh. CSK claimed their teammate Rajvardhan Hangargekar for ₹1.5 crore.
However, the first session’s highlight was Livingstone, who hit the million dollar plus mark with five teams bidding for him at one point.
Livingstone played for Rajasthan Royals in the previous season and did not actually perform well on slow tracks, but franchises with slots to fill (minimum 18 per squad) looked desperate for him.
CSK also took New Zealanders Devon Conway for ₹1 crore and Mitchell Santner and Adam Milne for ₹1.9 crore each.
Windies allrounder Rovman Powell went to Delhi for ₹2.8 crore while Mumbai Indians bought Aussie allrounder Daniel Sams for ₹2.6 crore.
Marco Jansen, the South African pacer, who tormented India during Test series, got ₹4.2 crore from Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The two teams that engaged in bidding war were SRH and Punjab with more than ₹20 crore and ₹28 crore in their kitty at start of the day.