Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills of England led the charge of the fast bowlers, going for 14.5 crore and 12 crore respectively as the franchises opted to boost their fast bowling arsenals for IPL 2017. Stokes was picked up by Rising Pune Supergiant’s (RSP) after beginning at a base price of Rs. 2 crore. Mills, on the other hand, carded only at Rs. 50 lakh initially, went rocketing up the money list before being snared by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Punjab, Mumbai, Delhi all tried to battle it out for Tymal Mills. Even KKR joined into the fray as his price soared past 10 crores. However, ultimately it was the Royal Challengers Bangalore who secured his services for a whopping Rs 12 crores. Mills is one of the most explosive English fast bowlers today and his ability to bowl at an average speed of 145 kmph is something which will be a bonus for RCB.

In fact, eight of the top ten purchases were fast bowlers. The only two to break the mould were Afghan Rashid Khan and Karn Sharma, both leg-spinners. Rashid, just the second Afghan to make it to IPL 2017 after Mohammad Nabi, went for a pretty formidable 4 crore (base 50 lakh) to Sunrisers Hyderabad while Sharma was bought for 3.2 crore from his base price of Rs. 30 lakh by Mumbai Indians.  Bringing up the Top Ten of the sold list was Australia fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile, who was bought by KKR for Rs. 3.5 crore (base 1 crore).

About Tymal Mills

Born in Yorkshire, Tymal Solomon Mills only began to show serious interest in cricket when he was around 14-16 years of age. At 19, he broke into the Essex team and subsequently decided to forego a journalism course at the prestigious University of East London.

A product of the U-19 scene, he made his first-class debut in a tour match against the visiting Sri Lankans in June 2011. In the winter, Mills was fast-tracked into the England Performance Programme (EPP) and underwent training at the ECB National Cricket Academy in Loughborough among other places.

Despite not setting the County Championship for fire, his bustling pace earned him a spot in the England Lions Squad.