Australia’s ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 winning duo Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc attracted a huge bidding war at the Indian Premier League auction (IPL Auction 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. Starc, meanwhile, went for a stunning INR 24.75 crore 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.
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.
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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.
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. 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.
Among the other international stars, West Indies T20I captain Rovman Powell went to the Rajasthan Royals for INR 7.40 crore while up-and-coming South African pacer Gerald Coetzee will turn up for Mumbai Indians after being bought for INR 5 crore.
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.
