Australia’s left-arm speedster Mitchell Starc became the most expensive player in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping Rs 24.75 crore at the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai on Tuesday.
Starc became the most expensive player in IPL history, edging past his Australian World Cup winning captain Pat Cummins. Cumins was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for Rs 20.5 crore earlier in the day.
Starc will aim to use the tournament as preparation for the T20 World Cup in June. His base price was Rs 2 crore.
New Zealand’s aggressive all-rounder Daryl Mitchell came close with ₹14 crore. He was picked up CSK. PBKS broke the bank for all-rounder Harshal Patel, who was bought for ₹11.75 crore. CSK got stuck in with the all-rounders, picking Shardul Thakur (₹4 crore) and Rachin Ravindra (1.8 crore).
West Indies T20 captain Rovman Powell was sold for a whopping ₹7.40 crore to RR after a fierce bidding war between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders. Powell, who had a base price of ₹1 crore, was the first player to be sold in IPL 2024 auction. There were no takers for Rilee Rossouw but Harry Brook was snapped up by DC for ₹4 Crore. There was another bidding war for Australia’s Travis Head between Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Finally, the World Cup final hero, whose base price was ₹2 crore, was sold for Rs. 6.8 crore to SRH.
However, there were no takers for Steve Smith, Karun Nair and Manish Pandey.