 "Indian Premiere League, IPL")
As the first session of the Vivo Indian Premier League 2018 player auction drew to a close, Ben Stokes held on to his title as the costliest player for the second year running. Sold to Rajasthan Royals for Rs 125 million, Stokes was aggressively bid by multiple teams. Last year, he was picked up by Rising Pune Supergiant (no longer in the IPL) for Rs 145 million).
Teams seemed to favour all-rounders as four of the top eights buys came in the category. Glenn Maxwell cost Delhi Daredevils Rs 90 million while CSK forked out Rs 78 million for Kedar Jadhav and Kings XI Punjab shelled out Rs 76 million for R Ashwin.
While Stokes was the costliest player of the inaugural session, KL Rahul and Manish Pandey followed close in second place, both attracting bids worth Rs 110 million each. Rahul will play for the KXIP while Pandey will don the colours of Surisers Hyderabad. Kolkata Knight Riders picked up only two players in the first session, but bid aggressively in both cases. The Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla owned team picked up Chris Lynn for Rs 96 million along with Mitchell Starc for Rs 94 million.
There were some surprises in terms of the players that went unsold. West Indies heavyweight Chris Gayle, South African batsman Hashim Amla, England team captain Joe Root (for whom it was the first time being in the IPL auction), New Zealander Martin Guptill, Australian all-rounder James Faulkner and India’s Murali Vijay remained unsold in the first session of this year’s auction.
Indian wicketkeepers Sanju Samson, Dinesh Karthik, and Wriddhiman Saha had the teams in a bidding war. While Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians were involved in an interesting duel for Sanju Samson, the former prevailed and picked him up for Rs 80 million.
Dinesh Karthik found suitors in Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians but finally went to the Kinght Riders for Rs 74 million. Saha was sold to Rs 50 million to Sunrisers Hyderabad. Robin Uthappa was retained by the Knight Riders for Rs 64 million after they used the right to match card against Rajasthan’s winning bid. Ambati rayadu went to the Chennai Super Kings for Rs 22 million.
FUNDS TALLY AT END OF FIRST SESSION
| Team | Funds remaining (Rs million) | Players bought |
| Chennai Super Kings | 252 | 5 |
| Delhi Daredevils | 381 | 4 |
| Kings XI Punjab | 259 | 7 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 400 | 2 |
| Mumbai Indians | 416 | 1 |
| Rajasthan Royals | 505 | 3 |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | 341 | 4 |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | 339 | 6 |
TOP BUYS IN FIRST SESSION
| Team | Player | Speciality | Winning bid (Rs million) |
| Rajasthan Royals | Benjamin Stokes | All-Rounder | 125 |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | Manish Pandey | Batsman | 110 |
| Kings XI Punjab | KL Rahul | Batsman | 110 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | Chris Lynn | Batsman | 96 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | Mitchell Starc | Bowler | 94 |
| Delhi Daredevils | Glenn Maxwell | All-Rounder | 90 |
| Chennai Super Kings | Kedar Jadhav | All-Rounder | 78 |
| Kings XI Punjab | Ravichandran Ashwin | All-Rounder | 76 |
|
Cricketers | Base price | Auction price | ||
| KL Rahul | Batsman | Rs 20 mn | Rs 110 mn | KXIP |
| Murali Vijay | Batsman | Rs 20 mn | Unsold for now | |
| Brendon McCullum | Batsman | Rs 20 mn | Rs 36 mn | RCB |
| Chris Lynn | Batsman | Rs 20 mn | Rs 96 mn | KKR |
| Aaron Finch | Batsman | Rs 15 mn | Rs 62 mn | KXIP |
| Jason Roy | Batsman | Rs 15 mn | Rs 15 mn | DD |
| Hashim Amla | Batsman | Rs 15 mn | Unsold for now | |
| David Miller | Batsman | Rs 15 mn | Rs 30 mn | KXIP retain using RTM against MI |
| Manish Pandey | Batsman | Rs 10 mn | Rs 110 mn | SRH |
| Martin Guptill | Batsman | Rs 7.5 mn | Unsold for now | |
| Karun Nair | Batsman | Rs 5 mn | Rs 56 mn | KXIP |
| Glenn Maxwell | All-Rounder | Rs 20 mn | Rs 90 mn | DD |
| Benjamin Stokes | All-Rounder | Rs 20 mn | Rs 125 mn | RR |
| Yuvraj Singh | All-Rounder | Rs 20 mn | Rs 20 mn | KXIP |
| Mitchell Starc | Bowler | Rs 20 mn | Rs 94 mn | KKR |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | All-Rounder | Rs 20 mn | Rs 76 mn | KXIP |
| Shikhar Dhawan | Batsman | Rs 20 mn | Rs 52 mn | SRH, using RTM against KXIP. |
| Christopher Gayle | Batsman | Rs 20 mn | Unsold for now | |
| Kieron Pollard | All-Rounder | Rs 20 mn | Rs 54 mn | MI retains using RTM against DD |
| Ajinkya Rahane | Batsman | Rs 20 mn | Rs 40 mn | RR retain through RTM against KXIP |
| Dwayne Bravo | All-Rounder | Rs 20 mn | Rs 64 mn | CSK use RTM against KXIP |
| Gautam Gambhir | Batsman | Rs 20 mn | Rs 28 mn | DD |
| Harbhajan Singh | Bowler | Rs 20 mn | Rs 20 mn | CSK |
| Kane Williamson | Batsman | Rs 15 mn | Rs 30 mn | SRH |
| Faf Du Plessis | Batsman | Rs 15 mn | Rs 16 mn | CSK retain using RTM against KXIP |
| Joe Root | Batsman | Rs 15 mn | Unsold for now | |
| Shakib Al Hasan | All-Rounder | Rs 10 mn | Rs 20 mn | SRH |
