The 2017 IPL player auction saw New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult go for a whopping Rs 5 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders. The deal also made Boult the third costliest foreign player in this year's IPL auction and the second most expensive New Zealand player in the IPL history after Brendon McCullum.
Also read: IPL 2017: How the squads of all eight teams look after the player auction
Trent Boult called the bidding war between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders for his services a surreal experience.
"We were in a car with a couple of the lads following the Twitter feed. To see the name come through with a figure like that next to it was pretty unbelievable. It's bizarre how that much money can be put on the head of a player to play six or seven weeks."
"Building up to [2015] World Cup I wouldn't have put myself in the bracket of top five or six white-ball bowlers in the country. But my game has grown, I'm a lot more confident with the white ball and now things like this are knocking at the door" ESPN quoted Boult as saying.
Trent Boult's game has improved by leaps and bounds of late. Boult got two wickets for eight runs in New Zealand's last T20 match against South Africa and took six wickets for 33 runs in the recently concluded Chappell-Hadlee ODI series.
Boult hardly got any playing time with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2016 IPL campaign. However, he is expected to play a much bigger role for the Kolkata Knight Riders in this edition.
"It's a very hard one to read. Different teams need different things. It was frustrating to only play one game last year but that's the way the tournament is played - four overseas players [in the XI] so people have to miss out. I'm definitely looking forward to putting my foot forward for KKR.
"The experience of playing there in front of thousands of people is the most exciting part. I'm looking forward to rubbing shoulders with a few more international players and growing my game," Boult said.
