Sam Curran fetched the highest price for an overseas player at the Indian Premier League auction after being drafted by Kings XI Punjab for around one million US dollars.

The 20-year-old all-rounder only made his England debut earlier this year, but has significantly burnished his reputation with a series of plucky displays across seven Tests and two one-day internationals.

He was England’s player of the series during their 4-1 win over world number one Test side India, which would have gone a long way towards convincing Kings XI to pay 7.2 crore rupees (£788,000) for his services.

He said on Instagram: “What a year! Couldn’t be more excited to join @kxipofficial at the @iplt20 in 2019.”

Curran was one of five English qualified players to be signed by a franchise on Tuesday, with Jonny Bairstow, Joe Denly, Harry Gurney and Liam Livingstone also earning their first IPL deals.

England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was a late entrant into the auction, but went unsold, as did international team-mates Alex Hales, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Chris Jordan.

It was reported that several franchises were dissuaded from swooping for high-profile England stars because of their limited availability as they build towards the World Cup.

Next year’s edition is set to start on March 29 and run until May 19, but England’s ODI players will report for international duty on April 25.

Curran, who has yet to be capped in the Twenty20 format at international level and whose elder brother Tom was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad earlier this year, is only on the fringes of the ODI set-up so may yet feature in the entire tournament.

Sunrisers Hyderabad seem unconcerned about Bairstow’s stay being cut short, though, as this year’s runners-up paid around £245,000 for the wicketkeeper-batsman.

The Yorkshireman is one of only three batsmen – alongside Indian pair Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma – to go past 1,000 runs in the ODI format in 2018.

The pair will feature in the world’s most lucrative domestic competition, alongside international team-mates Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, David Willey and Sam Billings – all of whom were retained by their franchises.

Kent batsman and occasional leg-spinner Denly has recently returned to the England fold and he was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for roughly £112,000 in the auction’s final round, having earlier been overlooked.

Nottinghamshire left-arm seamer Gurney, widely regarded as one of the best bowlers on the county circuit in the sprint format, will join Denly at the Knight Riders after being purchased for around £84,000.

Hard-hitting Lancashire batsman Liam Livingstone was acquired for an estimated £56,000 by Rajasthan Royals, but seamer Pat Brown, the leading wicket-taker in Worcestershire’s triumphant T20 Blast campaign this year, went unsold.

Indian pair Varun Chakravarthy and Jaydev Unadkat attracted the highest bids at the auction, recruited by Kings XI and Rajasthan respectively for £940,000.

However, India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, former New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum and South Africa paceman Dale Steyn attracted no bids.