Punjab Kings (PBKS) Head of Cricket Development Sanjay Bangar revealed that they were targeting three bowlers in The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 Auction. Bangar said that Harshal Patel was amongst those three bowlers on their list.
Other bowlers two bowlers they were bidding for were Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur.
Umesh Yadav was picked by Gujarat Titans (GT) at Rs 5.8 crore while Shardul Thakur went to Chennai Super Kings at a price of Rs 4 crore.
“Earlier we had Mohammed Shami so there were three bowlers who were on our target list- Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, who is obviously more in the all-rounders category, and Harshal Patel. So those are the three players that we were targeting,” said Bangar.
PBKS fetched Harshal at Rs 11.75 crore. He became the highest-paid Indian player in the mini-auction.
“Harshal Patel for his expertise of bowling in the middle overs and in the last five overs comes in handy because it gives us options to use Arshdeep and Rabada if they play in a different fashion. So that is an added dimension to our bowling attacks,” Bangar added.
PBKS players bought at IPL 2024 auction: Harshal Patel (Rs. 11.75 crores), Chris Woakes (Rs. 4.20 crore), Ashutosh Sharma (Rs. 20 lakhs), Vishwanath Pratap Singh (Rs. 20 lakh), Shashank Singh (Rs. 20 lakh), Tanay Thyagarajann (Rs. 20 lakh), Prince Choudhary (Rs. 20 lakh), Rilee Rossouw (Rs. 8 crore).
PBKS full squad: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, Harshal Patel, Chris Woakes, Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajann, Prince Choudhary, Rilee Rossouw.
