Indian Premier League is considered one of the biggest events on earth. It is a festival of millions of cricket fans to date. The excitement for IPL season 2023 is gradually growing as the most awaited auction session is just over with a bomb-bursting update. English young all-rounder Sam Curran has become the most expensive player in IPL history. It is going to be the biggest deal in the 16^th season of the IPL between a cricketer and a club. Most of the critics are spellbound by this unexpected news.

The most expensive player in IPL history:

It was an auction event organized by the Indian Premier League authority to buy, sell or retain any cricketer for the upcoming season of 2023. 23^rd December, Friday, on this big accession, the entire cricket lovers witnessed one of the biggest deals in the IPL history: Preity Zinta’s Punjab preparing themselves to offer Sam Curran a bulk amount of almost 18.50 crore INR. Perhaps the cricket himself was never expected to be the most expensive player in IPL history ever.

Curran played in England’s successful T20 World Cup campaign in 2022. He received the prestigious ‘Player of the tournament award with 13 wickets, including a spell of 3 for 12 against Pakistan in the final match. On the day of the IPL auction in Kerala, the cricket sensation saw a bidding battle between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. These two among all the teams were vying for his services, but Punjab came out on top, agreeing to a fee which eclipses the 13.25 crore INR Rajasthan paid for the South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris in 2021.

The Punjab team authority considered Sam a world-class player. Panjab Kings’ director Ness Wadia thinks, “He would play in any world XI, in any of the top teams; he is that good. He is probably one of the best all-rounders in the world, if not the best.”

Last year we saw Indian batter Ishan Kishan sign Mumbai Indians for a huge amount of 15.5 crore INR and Deepak Chahar sign Chennai for 14 crores. This season something higher we are getting to experience. We see in the highest-paid players’ list that Indian cricketers are in the sixth position (Mayank Agarwal), whereas last year, we saw something very different, Kishan grabbed the top place. Here is the table of the highest-paid cricketers for the upcoming IPL season, 2023.

Previous performances:

Why did Punjab Kings pick Sam Mathew Curran, considering him the most expensive player in IPL history? Definitely, his previous performances in the international and IPL career. 24-year-old Curran played his first IPL match in 2019 for Kings XI Punjab and left a remarkable impact with his power-packed performance. Next season he joined Dhoni’s Chennai for 5.50 crores INR and was retained in 2021 for the same price. In 2022, Curran stayed away from IPL as he preferred his rehabilitation and practice more to earn a good form for the ICC T-20 World Cup 2022. Here we see the previous statistics and performances in the IPL stage.

Batting & Feilding performance 2019-2021:

Bowling performance 2019-2021:

Bottom lines:

However, the team management has become desperate for the championship title this season as they never tasted the flavour of the trophy in the previous seasons. So, being the most expensive player in IPL history, Sam Curran has gained much more expectations to show a better performance for Punjab.