IPL 2017 Auction: Indian rookies make headlines as seniors face embarrassment

New Delhi: While England all-rounder Ben Stokes – who became most expensive oversees player ever in IPL history by earning himself a Rs. 14.5 crore contract from Rising Pune Supergiants, would unarguably be the most talked about topic for a few days but there were quite a few rookie Indian players who piped their seniors in bagging an IPL contact in Bengaluru on Monday.

The uncapped Indian players had a field day too with little-known Tamil Nadu left-arm seamer T Natarajan going for Rs 3 crore ($448,000) to Kings XI Punjab, a 30-fold hike over his base price of Rs 10 lakh.

Hyderabad pacer Mohammed Siraj got a deal of Rs 2.6 crore from his local franchise -- the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

READ: IPL Auction - As it happened...

Rajasthan's left-arm pacer Aniket Chaudhary, who has been a net bowler with the Indian Test squad for some time, also bagged a cool Rs 2 crore ($298,000) deal from RCB.

Karnataka's young off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham got a Rs 2 crore ($298,000) winning bid from Mumbai Indians.

India discard Varun Aaron fetched Rs 2.8 crore ($418,000) from Kings XI Punjab while leg-spinner Karn Sharma was bought for Rs 3.2 crore ($477,000) from Mumbai Indians.

For left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, it was another hefty pay day as he bagged a Rs 1 crore deal from RCB starting at a base price of Rs 30 lakh.

It was definitely much less than last year when Negi's Rs 8.5 crore deal with Delhi Daredevils had surprised one and all. But being an Indian player proved to be his advantage.

For senior Test players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, it turned out to be an embarrassment as both went unsold at their base prices of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore respectively. Irfan Pathan also went unsold at his Rs 50 lakh base price.

Among the prominent international players, who failed to find takers, was South African spinner Imran Tahir, currently ranked No 1 in the ICC list for ODI and T20 bowlers.

The day certainly turned out to be a good one for the England players with Stokes hogging the limelight but Mills wasn't far behind either.

The first round of bidding for Stokes saw Mumbai, Delhi and RCB match each other till it reached Rs 10.50 crore after which the Reliance-owned franchise pulled out.

Delhi and Bangalore continued to bid before Sunrisers entered the fray. But just when it looked that Stokes would go for around Rs 12.5 crore, Pune entered the fray and clinched the deal.

(With PTI inputs)