Crazy things do happen at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction but not many had anticipated Mitchell Starc or even Pat Cummins to go beyond INR 20 crore. Yes, both Australian players sought a huge demand across a maximum of four teams at the auction. While Cummins was sold for INR 20.25 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders broke almost their entire bank for Starc securing his services for INR 24.75 crore.
KKR won the fierce bidding war with Gujarat Titans to get hold of Starc who will play in IPL for the first time since 2015 season. Interestingly, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for whom he played last season didn't even bid for him as they picked Alzarri Joseph for INR 11.5 crore before that. Coming back to KKR, they had the purse in excess of INR 31 crore and they were hell bent on getting Starc in their line-up that already has Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Jason Roy.
Starc is now the highest paid player in IPL history and looking at his sold price of 24.75 crore, he will get this amount to deliver around 336 deliveries across 14 matches in the 2024 season provided he bowls his four-over quota in every match of the league stage. Accordingly, Starc will earn a massive amount of INR 7,36,607 for every delivery he bowls in the next IPL season and the amount comes down to 6.44 lakh if he ends up playing 16 matches which can happen only if KKR makes it to playoffs and the finals.
All eyes will be on Mitchell Starc now and his performance at the auction as he has had the history of pulling out of IPL after raking in a massive amount at the auction. This time around, the pacer could make an appearance given his huge IPL salary and the T20 World Cup that is set to take place right after the cash-rich league.
