Cummins becomes most expensive buy in IPL history; Harshal, Mitchell too draw big bucks

PTI, Dec 19, 2023, 3:16 PM IST

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World Cup winning captain Pat Cummins on Tuesday became the costliest buy in IPL history after fetching a whopping Rs 20.50 crore bid from Sunrisers Hyderabad while Harshal Patel and Daryl Mitchell also drew the big bucks at the auction here. Besides Cummins, Sunrisers also grabbed World Cup final hero Travis Head for Rs 6.80 crore.

Harshal Patel, who was released by RCB ahead of the auction, remains a sought after player with Punjab Kings paying Rs 11.75 crore for the out of favour India pacer.

Mitchell, who also had a good ODI World Cup, had a massive payday with Chennai Super Kings spending Rs 14 crore for the New Zealand batter. Cummins’ winning bid is unlikely to be bettered in the remainder of the auction.

An intense bidding war followed for Cummins with Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai Super Kings, and Sunrisers Hyderabad raising their paddles frenetically to secure the services of the fast bowling all-rounder.

In the end, it was SRH who broke the bank for Cummins, who drew the highest-ever bid surpassing the Rs 18.5 crore that Punjab Kings had shelled out for England’s Sam Curran last year.

It was not the first time that Cummins attracted huge sums at the IPL auction. Ahead of the 2020 edition, KKR had paid Rs 15.5 crore for his services. Head, who scored a match-winning century in the ODI World Cup final against India and also starred in the World Test Championship final against the Rohit Sharma-led team earlier this year, saw reigning champions Chennai Super Kings and SRH indulge in a bidding war.

The wicketkeeper batter was finally grabbed by 2016 champions SRH.

”We really wanted him (Travis Head) because we needed an opening left-handed batter. Adding to that he can bowl spin as well. ”I never thought we would get him for that price because of his performance being tremendous in the last couple of years in T20Is and ODIs for Australia,” SRH’s spin bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan said.

New Zealand batter Rachin Ravindra, with a base price of Rs 50 lakh, was snapped by CSK for a modest Rs 1.8 crore. Ravindra was another star of the recently held ODI World Cup in India.

West Indies T20 skipper Rovman emerged as the costliest player in set 1 of the IPL auction, going to Rajasthan Royals for Rs 7.40 crore.

Powell, who had a base price of Rs 2 crore, was the first player to go under the hammer at the mini auction and as many as three teams showed keen interest to rope him in for the 2024 season. Eventually, Rajasthan Royals got their hands on the big hitter, who also captains their team Barbados Royals in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

The trio of former Australia skipper Steve Smith, India’s Manish Pandey and Rilee Rossouw went unsold, while England’s Harry Brook was snapped by Delhi Capitals for Rs 4 crore. Young South Africa pacer Gerald Coetzee attracted a winning bid of Rs 5 crore from Mumbai Indians while India pacer Shardul Thakur returned to CSK for Rs 4 crore.