<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">England's Sam Curran has become the most expensive auction buy in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after being bought by Punjab Kings for £1.85m.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Six franchises made a bid for the 24-year-old all-rounder before Punjab were eventually successful.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yorkshire's Harry Brook has been sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for £1.35m.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 23-year-old was the leading run-scorer for England in their recent 3-0 Test series win in Pakistan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Curran was named player of the tournament at this year's Twenty20 World Cup after helping England to become double white-ball world champions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He took 13 wickets at an average of 11.38 in last month's event in Australia and has improved his batting to become a genuine all-rounder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Back to where it all started! Looking forward to it," Curran tweeted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The previous most expensive IPL player was South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris, who was signed by Rajasthan Royals for £1.6m in April 2021.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That figure was overtaken again on Friday when Mumbai Indians paid £1.75m for Australian all-rounder Cameron Green.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">England red-ball captain and all-rounder Ben Stokes was acquired for £1.63m by Chennai Super Kings - one of the franchises to miss out on Curran.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Adil Rashid will join Brook in Hyderabad, while Will Jacks and Reece Topley have been signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals took Phil Salt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Former Test captain Joe Root initially went unsold but was later bought by Rajasthan Royals for £100,000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Left arm seamer Josh Little became the first Ireland player to win a full IPL contract as he was signed by Gujarat Titans for nearly £450,000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">England's 18-year-old leg spinner Rehan Ahmed, Tom Curran and Chris Jordan all went unsold. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>