IPL Auction 2024: Pat Cummins (INR 20.5 crore), Mitchell Starc (INR 24.75 crore) become the most expensive buys in the history of IPL. Why SRH and KKR spent so much on them?
It was a historic earth-shattering IPL 2024 auction at the Coca-Cola arena in Dubai where every previous bidding record was shattered by huge margins. Just like the tall and meteoric Burj Khalifa, the bids on a few of the players who were anticipated to go big at the auctions, saw skyrocketing bids going their way exceeding every expectation as the INR 20 crore mark was breached not once but twice within an hour.
The most extravagant and popular cricket tournament in the world IPL began in 2008 and MS Dhoni was the most expensive player in the first ever 2008 IPL auction as he was picked up by Chennai Super Kings for a whopping 9.5 crores where the auction purse for each team at the start of the IPL in 2008 was in-fact ₹20 crores. Not even for once in the previous 16 IPL player auctions had a bid that breached the ₹20 crore mark.
The 2011 IPL auction saw the contravention of the 10 crore mark for the first time as Kolkata Knight Riders bought Gautam Gambhir at a whopping 14.9 crores. The bidding records in IPL auctions kept on tumbling over the years as Yuvraj Singh was acquired by Delhi Daredevils in a gigantic 16 crores deal in 2015. Then it was followed up by Chris Morris’s bid of 16.25 crores by Rajasthan Royals in 2021 auctions and Sam Curran was acquired by Punjab Kings in 2023 auctions at a record-breaking 18.5 crores.
The current mindset of the owners of the respective franchises shows a belligerent approach where they want a team that can take them to the ultimate pinnacle of winning the IPL championship which is one of the longest and toughest cricket leagues in the world. For that, they are ready to splurge a huge sum of money to get in their wishlist players who are seen as match-winners by their respective franchises.
Read More: IPL 2024 Auction: Starc, Cummins, Mitchell, Harshal top bids; MI, RR, SRH look settled on paper
Pat Cummins – a potential suitor for SRH’s captaincy role
Team Australia led by their skipper Pat Cummins had a dream 2023 year where they retained the Ashes trophy, won World Test Championship and ICC World Cup, getting hold of every trophy in the cabinet a team can ask for. The enthralling auction day ended with unprecedented scenes where Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc emerged as the biggest beneficiaries.
Pat Cummins fetched the second-best bid, going to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs. 20.50 crore. Archrivals Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians initially got into a bidding war for Cummins before the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad swooped in with their respective bids. Finally, SRH placed the final bid and acquired the services of the Australian skipper and all-rounder Pat Cummins.
Both SRH and RCB went into a hefty bidding war for Cummins as former needed a long-term captaincy prospect while later was looking for an all-round option. SRH have given themselves options of captaincy prospects in Pat Cummins and Aiden Markram and maybe the aggressive bidding by SRH for Cummins makes him a definite candidate for leading the SRH team.
Kolkata fill their void in the pace-bowling department
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) haven’t been able to qualify for the playoffs in the 2022 and 2023 editions and saw themselves languishing at the bottom of the points table in 7th position. The team had a good lineup of batters, all-rounders and spinners but the missing piece of the puzzle has been the absence of an intimidating and varied pace lineup. So in this year’s auction KKR looked to strategise and rebuild their pace department as they had released a handful of pacers like Umesh Yadav, Pat Cummins, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson and Kulwant Khejroliya earlier.
They needed a bowler who could give them early swing and take wickets in powerplay overs and be equally effective in death overs as well picking up crucial wickets in the end. Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians engaged in a bidding war for Starc to 10 crores until KKR and GT entered the bidding scene where both the teams had 31+ crores in their kitty. The bidding war between the both went from 10 crores to 24.5 crores and finally, KKR splurged a whopping ₹24.75 crore to rope in Mitchell Starc.
Nobody predicted the final bidding amount to go this far breaching the 20 crore mark twice in the day. This shows the evolution of IPL and growth in stature over the years reflected in the elevation of the purse size and the team’s allocated budget which has enticed the team owners to go aggressively in bidding wars to acquire the services of the players who they feel can potentially fill in the requirements in their playing 11 and turn out to be ultimate match winners for them.
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