Mitchell Starc broke Australian new ball partner Pat Cummin’s record for the most expensive bid in the history of the Indian Premier League shortly after the Aussie captain secured a Rs 20.50 crore bid from Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Mitchell Starc was sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 24.75 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders who battled stiff competition from Gujarat Titans.
Mitchell Starc was pitted to break the record for the highest bid in all IPL auctios by Tom Moody and for a while after Pat Cummins created history earlier in the day, it did not look likely for another player to reach that level.
However, the cricketing world was in for a major surprise.
Mitchell Starc came up much later but he immediately drew bids from Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders, who threw caution to the wind to go for the star Aussie pacer.
Mitchell Starc has played only two seasons of the Indian Premier League and the last time he featured in the tournament was was back in 2015. In two editions, both of which were for Royal Challengers Bangalore, picked 34 wickets.
Unlike Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc has outstanding figures in T20 cricket. In 58 T20 Internationals, Starc has 73 wickets and he is known to be among the most potent bowlers in limited-overs cricket. Like Cummins, Starc had an ordinary run in the ODI World Cup until the knockouts.
The frenzy for the Australian pacers was a little difficult to understand. Yes, bowlers will be allowed two bouncers per over from the 2024 IPL but were SRH and KKR too desperate to bag Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc? Time will tell.