India’s Shreyas Iyer fetched the top price in the first round of the IPL auction on Saturday.

Iyer, who stood out with his match-winning 80 in India’s 3-0 ODI whitewash of the West Indies on Friday, went to the Kolkata Knight Riders for $1.62 million in the two-day auction in Bangalore.

The first set of 10 marquee players each had a base price of $264,000 in the auction, which sets their salary for the 10-team tournament.

Kolkata secured a return for Australia’s Pat Cummins for nearly $1m and chief executive Venky Mysore said they were “delighted” at the two buys.

“To get back Pat Cummins at that price, actually we thought he would go higher, so happy with that,” Mysore told reporters. “Obviously Shreyas, a quality Indian player, at the top of the order, is a very, very long term in our thinking. Couldn’t be happier getting Cummins and Shreyas.”

Cummins, who went to Kolkata for a record $2.17m in 2019 but was released last year, and Shreyas Kolkata have “two solid” options for captaincy after they did not retain England’s Eoin Morgan – who led them to the runners-up spot last season.

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The auction kicked off with Shikhar Dhawan and the India opener went to Punjab Kings for $1.09m.

Punjab also got Proteas pace bowler Kagiso Rabada for $1.22m (R18.6m), the second-highest price for a marquee player.

New Zealand pace bowler Trent Boult also crossed the million-dollar threshold with his $1.06m signing by the Rajasthan Royals.

South Africa’s Faf du Plessis went to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for $929,000 (R14m) while the Delhi Capitals got David Warner for $826,000.

The tournament’s two new teams, the Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, signed Mohammed Shami ($829,000) and Quinton de Kock ($895,000 or R13.5m), respectively.

Ten IPL teams have been bidding for 590 foreign and Indian players in the auction.

The 15th edition of the IPL begins in late March, with the final at the end of May.