Sam Curran was signed by Punjab Kings for a whopping Rs. 18.5 crore at the IPL 2023 auction in Kochi on Friday. He is now the most expensive player ever in the IPL, going past Chris Morris. Curran’s base price was Rs 2 crore.
Morris became the IPL’s most expensive ever auction signing after he was was signed for Rs 16.25 crore by Rajasthan Royals in 2021. Yuvraj Singh was the most expensive Indian player at a mini auction when Delhi Daredevils secured him for INR 16 crore in the 2015 auction.
Pat Cummins (15.5 in 2020) and Kyle Jamieson (15 in 2021) are the other players to be signed for Rs 15 crore or more at an IPL mini auction.
Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore entered the bidding race for Curran as his price quickly reached Rs 7 crore, at which point Rajasthan Royals joined the bidding. RCB dropped out shortly after as RR and MI continued to engage in a fierce bidding war. Chennai Super Kings, Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants entered the fray shortly after before Punjab eventually broke the bank.
Curran was the Player of the Tournament at the T20 World Cup in Australia earlier this year.
Curran picked up 13 wickets during the tournament, including a 3 for 12 in the final against Pakistan, which won him the Player of the Match award.
“Very happy to have him on board, he has a lot of skills with both bat and ball. We had two or three allrounders in mind, Sam might be lucky he came up first,” Trevor Bayliss of Punjab Kings said during the break.
Curran did not register for the IPL mega auction in February 2022, citing rehabilitation from a back injury as the reason for opting out.
The left-arm pacer played for Chennai Super Kings in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. He was handed his IPL debut by Punjab Kings, which signed him for Rs. 7.2 crore in 2019.
Over the 32 games in three seasons, Curran has scored 337 runs at a strike rate of 149.78. Curran also has 32 wickets at an economy of 9.21.
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