It was a record-breaking Indian Premier League (IPL) Auction especially for the Australian duo of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. While the 20-crore mark had never been breached before in the bidding war, it was broken not once but twice in the auction held at the Coca Cola-Arena in Dubai. First it was Pat Cummins, Australia's World Cup-winning captain, who was purchased by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for a whopping price of 20.5 Crore.
While that had already set the record for the most expensive purchase in the history of the T20 league, that record did not last long as Cummins compatriot Mitchell Starc dwarfed even the sum of money that SRH spent to rope in Cummins. Starc who ends an 8-year-long hiatus to make a comeback into the T20 league was ultimately purcahsed by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping 24.75 crore.
Following the record-purchases, a tweet by commentator and broadcaster Harsha Bhogle describing the turn of events has gone viral on social media. In his five-worded post, neither did Bhogle name the two players or the auction but simply wrote: "Australia-India trade relations looking good.....".
Pumped To Be Joining SRH: Pat Cummins
Meanwhile, Cummins did not hide his excitement in his first video after the signing.
"Pumped to be joining SRH for the upcoming IPL season. I've heard a lot about the Orange Army, have played in Hyderabad a few times. Can't wait to get started. Great to see another Aussies, Travis Head, over there as well. I think we're going to have a lot of fun this season and hopefully, plenty of success," Cummins said in the video shared by SRH on their official X handle.
Meanwhile, Starc revealed that it was a shock for him to be sold at that high a price but he now looks forward to playing for KKR in IPL 2024.