Australia pacer Pat Cummins on Thursday took the IPL auction by storm when he became the most expensive foreign signing in the history of the T20 league, surpassing England all-rounder Ben Stokes.
In IPL 2017, Stokes was signed for Rs 14.5 crore by the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant.
Cummins — who returned to Kolkata Knight Riders for a jaw-dropping Rs 15.5 crore — is also the second most expensive player in the history of the IPL auction, after Yuvraj Singh, who was signed by the then Delhi Daredevils for Rs 16 crore in 2015.
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This time, Delhi Capitals pushed the bid to Rs 2.4 crore. Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi were locked in a bidding war. The bid swiftly soared past 5 crore, with RCB in the lead briefly at 5.25 crore.
Cummins eventually returned to KKR.
Primarily a fast bowler, the Aussie can go hard at the bowlers while batting. He enjoys a strike-rate of 140.00 in the IPL.
The last time Cummins featured in the IPL, in 2017, he claimed 15 wickets for the Daredevils. However, an injury ruled him out of action for Mumbai Indians in the 2018 season and he was released before the following year’s auction.
“He was the best player in the auction.We are delighted to have him. He has become very robust. He is the vice-captain of the Australian team and that shows he’s coming along well. We have spoken to him. When you go into the auction and bag the best player in the auction, it’s great,” KKR’s head coach McCullum said.
“We would have come in earlier but the paddles kept going up. We were certainly interested in him. We were determined to get him,” KKR CEO, Venky Mysore, said.
During his tenure with the Knights, Cummins had a decent outing and his envious record at the international level forced the Kinghts to go ‘all out’ for him. “Cummins was with us in 2014 when we won our second championship. Cummins and Morgan were both with us so it’s great to have them both back,” the CEO said.
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