KL Rahul has become the highest-paid player for the new edition as Lucknow Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise has signed the player for a whopping Rs. 17 crores. With this has made him the joint-highest-paid player in the IPL across seasons, along with Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) Virat Kohli.

The two new IPL franchise; Lucknow and Ahmedabad have named their three draft picks each on Friday ahead of the mega auction, scheduled to be held next month. The Lucknow franchise is expected to enter this year’s auction with a purse of Rs. 59.89 crore. Besides Rahul, Lucknow also signed Australian all-rounder Stoinis and uncapped Indian spinner Bishnoi for Rs 9.2 crore and Rs. 4 crores respectively. IPl has confirmed this through an official tweet.

IPL said in a statement today that a total 1,214 players have been registered to be a part of this year’s mega auction. These players include 896 Indian and 318 overseas players.