IPL 2019 Auction: Prayas Ray Barman, Prabhsimran Singh – the young millionaires

The final session of the 2019 Indian Premier League auctions witnessed an accelerated session where players were being sold quickly. However, two names ensured that the session would be remembered for all the right reasons. Prayas Ray Barman, a 16-year-old player from Bengal and Prabhsimran Singh, an 18-year-old batsman from Punjab, got the attention of all the major IPL franchisees when they were bid for a high sum. Both were priced at Rs 20 lakhs but they left the auction significantly richer. Prayas Ray Barman was picked up by Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 1.5 crore but it was the price money of Prabhsimran Singh that drew disbelief as he was picked up for Rs 4.8 crore by Kings XI Punjab.

Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore were involved in an intense bidding war for Prabhsimran. Kings XI Punjab thought about opting out of the process twice but each time they bounced back and they bid for the youngster. The 17-year-old missed out on the chance of being part of the U-19 World Cup which was held in New Zealand but he grabbed the attention of the cricketing public in India when he smashed a magnificent 298 in the Punjab U-23 Inter-District Cricket Tournament. Earlier, Prabhsimran had scored over 500 runs in the Cooch Behar Trophy.

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Barman, on the other hand, made his debut for Bengal in the 2018 Vijay Hazare Trophy and he is considered a utility all-rounder. His leg-breaks fetched him a brilliant 4/20 against Jammu and Kashmir while he played some solid knocks with the bat, with his highest being 25* against Tripura.

The uncapped players enjoyed a good run in this IPL 2019 auction with many players going at their base price. Akshdeep Nath, who was not picked in the first round of the auction, was brought back towards the final session and he was involved in a big bidding war between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. In the end, Virat Kohli’s franchise bagged the services of Nath for a huge sum of Rs 3.6 crore.