The two become the only players that have been bidded for 20 crore INR or more. Previously, Sam Curran had been the most expensive player in the league’s history, sold for 18.50 crore to the Punjab Kings ahead of the last season.
A month since they lifted the ODI World Cup trophy in India, Australian captain Pat Cummins and his fellow pacer Mitchell Starc broke the paywall at the IPL 2024 auction.
Whilst Cummins was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 20.5 crore, he was overtaken by Mitchell Starc later in the day as the most expensive IPL player of all time after he was acquired by the Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 24.75 crore. A bidding war ensued for the two Aussie pacers that also featured Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Titans, and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The two become the only players that have been bidded for 20 crore INR or more. Previously, Sam Curran had been the most expensive player in the league’s history, sold for 18.50 crore to the Punjab Kings ahead of the last season.
The bid marks a comeback for Starc in the league for the first time since 2015. The left-armer had featured in two seasons for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, nabbing 34 wickets during the same time.
Cummins on the other hand had been previously with the Kolkata Knight Riders for a couple of seasons but had decided to not feature in the league this year ahead of the World Test Championship Final – another trophy he claimed this year as the Australian skipper.
“Pumped to be joining SRH for the upcoming IPL season. I’ve played at Hyderabad a lot of times and loved it. Can’t wait to get started. Great to see another Aussie in Travis Head there. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun this season,” he said in a video from the SRH social media handle.
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 PAT 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 🧡
Welcome, Cummins! 🫡#HereWeGOrange pic.twitter.com/qSLh5nDbLM
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) December 19, 2023
Cummins has a total of 45 scalps in the 42 appearances he has in the league but the right-arm quick also boasts a strike rate of 152, and one of the quickest half centuries in the league’s history (14 deliveries). Cummins’ overall T20 record is a 143 scalps from 121 matches at an economy rate of 7.98.
SRH had been eyeing to strengthen their pace attack but with the Australian skipper, they also have a strong contender to become the franchise captain – taking over the responsibilities from Aiden Markram.
The franchise also bid 6.8 crore INR for Travis Head, who was the player of the match of the recently concluded World Cup final against India.
Having lifted the IPL trophy in 2016, Hyderabad finished at the bottom of the points table last season.
Source:indianexpress.com