Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills stunned after IPL auction 2017

England cricketers Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills hogged all the limelight in the IPL auctions. They got their biggest surprises ever, when they got selected by Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) respectively for whopping sum of INR 14.5 crores and INR 12 crores respectively.

England cricketers Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills hogged all the limelight in the IPL auctions. They got their biggest surprises ever, when they got selected by Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) respectively for whopping sum of INR 14.5 crores and INR 12 crores respectively. Ben Stokes has become the most expensive foreign player to be bought by any franchises in the history of IPL. Meanwhile, Mills who had feared an end to his cricket career owing to his congenital back condition which was diagnosed two years back has had one of the biggest turnarounds in his life. This year’s dramatic IPL auction has suddenly propelled him into T20 stardom overnight.  IPL 2017 Auction: Complete list of sold players with price, Indian Premier League 10

Stokes, having been earmarked as one of the marquee players this year, had sent the franchises into frenzy with each trying to bid on him desperately. He was eventually purchased by  RPS for a magnanimous amount of INR 14.5 crores. The Durham all-rounder was named the vice-captain to Joe Root just last week.

Stokes says that he was so anxious for the IPL auctions that he got up at 3.30 am and waited for about 40 minutes for his turn in the auction. Though he did not watch it live, he was following the Twitter and kept on refreshing his notifications to realise finally that he had been sold to the Pune franchise. It took some more time for him to understand what exactly happened in the bidding process as the auction that was conducted in rupees and he was not sure about the real value of crores. Along with other franchises, most notably, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad had also shown a keen interest on him.  IPL 2017 Auction: Full list of players unsold for Indian Premier League 10

Stokes feels that he is in a great position with franchises competing to have him. He says that he did not expect such a demand for him, as he just wanted to get picked and play. As he hasn’t been able to play in the past, he was looking to play in this IPL and anything else was just a bonus for him. He is finding it difficult to put in words and express himself on being signed for such a life changing amount.  He feels grateful for this and expects to play well for the team that has a lot expectations on him.

The story of Mills signing has been even more remarkable. Mills was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 12 crores (USD 1.8 million), which was 24 times more than his base price of INR 49,57,260 (USD 74,000). This is the highest price paid to any specialist bowler.

The back condition had forced Mills to retire from the First-Class cricket. Hence, Mills’ only real ambition was secure an employment between now and start of Sussex NatWest T20 Blast campaign in the English season.

Mills says that the IPL auction was really a shock for him and it took a while to sink in. He reportedly placed himself on lowest base price as his motto was just to play in the IPL and not to wait for next July to play cricket.

Fortunately for Mills, he had performed well during England’s three-match T20 series against India last month. This may have definitely attracted the attention of Virat Kohli, who was not very comfortable while playing against him. In fact, it is Kohli’s side who fetched him for the whopping amount. With Mitchell Starc unavailable,  Mills will have a huge role to play for RCB in the IPL.

Speaking about the IPL auction price to ESPNcricinfo, Mills said, “When it finished I did not know how much it was worth. When I worked it out I could not believe it, it did not seem real. It is an amount of money that can change your life. It will for me.”

Mills says back injury might have been the best thing that ever happened to him as it was sad at that time to even think about retiring at 22. But he definitely agrees to the fact that the focus on T20 has accelerated his development.