The first day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, saw most of the high-profile names raking in the moolah as the 10 franchises virtually emptied their pockets on Sunday to bag the priority players in their respective shortlist.
Led by Rs 27 crore Lucknow Super Giants spent to buy star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, the sum of money splurged by the franchises came to a whopping Rs 467.95 crore.
A total of 84 players from the roster of 577 were presented on the opening day of the two-day auction at the Abadi Al Johar Arena in Jeddah. Out of these 68 got sold, while four were retained through the Right-to-Match card.
The Punjab Kings were expectedly the most aggressive buyer in the auction, as they went in with the biggest remaining purse of Rs 110.50 crore crore. They bought eight players for Rs 88 crore.
On Monday, 32 players will be presented at the auction before the accelerated process begins from player No. 117 onwards.
HERE’RE THE TOP 15 BUYS OF DAY 1
Rishabh Pant – INR 27 crore (Lucknow Super Giants)
Shreyas Iyer – INR 26.75 crore (Punjab Kings)
Venkatesh Iyer – INR 23.75 crore (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Arshdeep Singh – INR 18 crore (Punjab Kings)
Yuzvendra Chahal – INR 18 crore (Punjab Kings)
Jos Buttler – INR 15.75 crore (Gujarat Titans)
KL Rahul – INR 14 crore (Delhi Capitals)
Trent Boult – INR 12.5 crore (Mumbai Indians)
Jofra Archer – INR 12.5 crore (Rajasthan Royals)
Josh Hazlewood – INR 12.5 crore (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)
Mohammad Siraj – INR 12.25 crore (Gujarat Titans)
Ishan Kishan – INR 11.25 crore (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
Jitesh Sharma – INR 11 crore (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)
T. Natarajan – INR 10.75 crore (Delhi Capitals)
Mohammed Shami – INR 10 crore (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
RTM CARDS USED SO FAR
Arshdeep Singh (INR 18 crore, Punjab Kings)
Jake Fraser-McGurk (INR 9 crore, Delhi Capitals)
Rachin Ravindra (INR 4 crore, Chennai Super Kings)
Naman Dhir (INR 5.25 crore, Mumbai Indians)
TOP BUYS AMONG UNCAPPED PLAYERS
Rasikh Salam – INR 6 crore (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)
Naman Dhir – INR 5.25 crore (Mumbai Indians)
Nehal Wadhera – INR 4.20 (Punjab Kings)
Abdul Samad – INR 4.20 crore (Lucknow Super Giants)
Ashutosh Sharma – INR 3.80 crore (Delhi Capitals)
Abhinav Manohar – INR 3.20 crore (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
Angkrish Raghuvanshi – INR 3 crore (Kolkata Knight Riders)
PURSE REMAINING AFTER DAY 1
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: INR 30.65 crore
Mumbai Indians: INR 26.1 crore
Punjab Kings: INR 22.5 crore
Gujarat Titans: INR 17.5 crore
Rajasthan Royals: INR 17.35 crore
Chennai Super Kings: INR 15.6 crore
Lucknow Super Giants: INR 14.85 crore
sDelhi Capitals: INR 13.8 core
Kolkata Knight Riders: INR 10.05 crore
Sunrisers Hyderabad: INR 5.15 crore