Root had made himself available for the tournament for the first time, while Morgan has previously played for four different franchises: Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. Hales is currently ranked at No.8 in the ICC T20 batting rankings.

Tymal Mills – who was the second most expensive player in the 2017 auction – Adil Rashid and David Willey missed out, too.

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Ben Stokes, listed as one of 16 marquee players, was signed by Rajasthan Royals for £1.4m on Saturday – a slight decrease in his £1.7m price tag last year, when he ended up as the tournament’s MVP. It was still enough for him to be the most expensive by of this year’s auction. Teams had previously been assured that in the event of any interruption to his availability caused by his ongoing legal case, they will be able to replace the England all-rounder.

He will join teammate Jos Buttler at Royals after he was bought for £480,000 and the highly rated Jofra Archer, who has made such an impression in the Big Bash. The Barbados-born quick who is currently qualifying to play for England was bought by Royals after a bidding war which led to a price of £800,000.

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Royal Challengers Bangalore bought Chris Woakes for £812,000 (he’d played for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2017) and Moeen Ali for £190,000 – his first IPL contract.

Mark Wood and Sam Billings were both picked up late on by Chennai Super Kings, Jason Roy by Delhi Daredevils and Chris Jordan was bought by Sundrisers Hyderabad.