Former England captain Jos Buttler recalled his first IPL auction experience when the Mumbai Indians (MI) signed him for the 2016 season. Buttler said that his agent had conveyed before the auction that seven of the eight franchises were interested in him. Incidentally, MI was the only franchise without interest in signing him, yet they signed Buttler for ₹3.8 crores.

Recalling this, Buttler said on the For the Love of Cricket YouTube channel, “I was dropped from the Test team, and we had the conversation that I was not going to get back into the Test team anytime soon, so why not go into the IPL auction for the 2016 season. I scored a hundred against South Africa the day before the auction (February 2016). My agent, Harvey, had been talking to a few of the teams and sounding them out to see if there was any interest. Of the eight teams, seven of them had expressed interest in me. Mumbai Indians was the only team that said, ‘No, we’ve got no interest.'”

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“But then on the day of the auction, I woke up and opened Twitter to see if my name had come out yet. And I had been sold to the Mumbai Indians. So I was incredibly surprised because they were the only team that said no. But I am so grateful to them for picking me up and giving me the first chance in the IPL. It was surreal with Ricky Ponting, Jonty Rhodes, and Sachin Tendulkar around,” he added.

Jos Buttler also recalled being asked to open for MI in the 2017 IPL season after a poor maiden IPL season in 2016.

“So my first experience of the IPL in 2016 was tiring but amazing. Going back to the tournament the following year, Mahela Jayawardene called me and told me that I would open the batting. He said we’ve got Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard, so we don’t need you in the middle. And that was a huge turning point in my T20 career: becoming an opening batter. I’ll be indebted to Mahela forever for that,” Buttler concluded.