Rishabh Pant pipped Shreyas Iyer to become the costliest buy in IPL's history with a Rs 27 crore winning bid from Lucknow Super Giants as teams expectedly went the extra mile for marquee Indian players at the mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Iyer, who captained the Kolkata Knight Riders to the title earlier this year and Delhi Capitals' icon Pant, reaped the benefits of making themselves available at the auction following differences with their respective teams.
Iyer was the first one to surpass Mitchell Starc as the IPL's most expensive buy with cash-heavy Punjab Kings shelling out Rs 26.75 crore for their potential captain before Pant overtook the fellow Indian by attracting Rs 25 lakh more from LSG.
Like Iyer, the southpaw is also expected to captain his new IPL team.
Delhi Capitals expectedly enabled the Right To Match to buy back Pant at Rs 20.75 crore but LSG raised the bid to Rs 27 crore and the former decided against matching that amount.
Among the second set of players, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal drew an impressive winning bid of Rs 18 crore from Punjab Kings while former LSG captain KL Rahul turned out to be a bargain buy for Delhi Capitals at Rs 14 crore.
India pacer Mohammed Shami, who recently made a comeback from injury, was bought by SunRisers Hyderabad for Rs 10 crore.
Among others, left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh's consistency earned him a massive bid of Rs 18 crore, also from Punjab Kings via the Right to Match card, while South African speedster Kagiso Rabada was bought for Rs 10.75 crore by Gujarat Titans.
Arshdeep was the first player to be sold in the mega auction.
This is the second time an IPL auction is being held outside the country after last year's event in Dubai.
Australian veteran Starc got a much lower price this time and was sold to Delhi Capitals for Rs 11.75 crore, while England's Jos Buttler went to Gujarat Titans for Rs 15.75 crore.
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