Starc and Cummins shatter records at the IPL 2024 auction
All roads lead to Dubai today for the IPL 2024 Auction where the best players get a chance to secure coveted spots in the world's biggest domestic T20 league heading into ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024.
Within two hours of the auction, records were broken as four teams involved in intense bidding for Pat Cummins made the Australia captain the most expensive player in IPL history, but that record didn't last long with fellow Australian Mitchell Starc coming in later in the auction.
In the end, it was Sunrises Hyderabad who bagged the services of Cummins for the upcoming season for a whopping INR 20.50 crore ($2.47 million US dollars). Starc, meanwhile, went for a stunning INR 24.75 crore ($2.98 million USD) to Kolkata Knight Riders.
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Cummins had surpassed the record for the most expensive player in the history of the auction when he went past Sam Curran at INR 18.50 crore from last year. Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians began the bidding war before Royal Challengers Bangalore and Hyderabad got involved in the tussle.
For Starc, Kolkata were involved in an intense tussle with Gujarat Titans before the latter backed out at INR 24.75 crore.
The Aussie captain was expected to be in high demand after the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in India where he led his side to a record sixth title.
Cummins will be playing alongside countryman Travis Head, who came in with clutch Player of the Match performances in the World Cup semi-final and final. Sunrisers Hyderabad bought Head for INR 6.80 crore ($818,000 USD).
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Travis Head won the Player of the Match award for his brilliant century in Ahmedabad.
KKR, meanwhile, reunited with Starc after five years. The franchise had won a bid for the Australian pacer in 2018, but he missed the season due to a fracture of his right tibial bone.
Starc is joined by some heavyweight overseas stars including Andre Russell, Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sunil Narine at KKR.
While SRH did splurge cash, they made a smart buy by getting the No.3 ranked T20I bowler in the world, Wanindu Hasaranga, at a base price of INR 1.5 crore.
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Across the border from Australia, New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell too fetched massive amounts as Chennai Super Kings secured his services for INR 14 crore ($1.6 million USD). Before that, CSK did shrewd business by securing one of the most promising emerging stars from the World Cup, Rachin Ravindra, for a mere INR 1.80 crore ($216,000 USD).
Among the other international stars, West Indies T20I captain Rovman Powell went to the Rajasthan Royals for INR 7.40 crore ($890,000 USD) while up-and-coming South African pacer Gerald Coetzee will turn up for Mumbai Indians after being bought for INR 5 crore ($602,000 USD). West Indies quick Alzarri Joseph went for a whopping INR 11.5 crores to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The capped Indian players too were in high demand, with wily pacer Harshal Patel bagging INR 11.75 crores from Punjab Kings. Shardul Thakur will be back in yellow yet again with CSK outbidding SRH to bring the Indian pacer in for INR 4 crore.
Afghanistan veteran Mohammad Nabi went to Mumbai Indians at base price while his international teammate Mujeeb ur Rahman was picked up by Kolkata.
Rilee Rossouw returned late in the auction to go for a stunning INR 8 crores to Punjab Kings.