In the recently held IPL 2024 Auction, all eyes were on the Australian Captain Pat Cummins. Every franchise would want to have a player of Pat Cummins‘ caliber to play in their team. Everybody knew that after winning the World Test Championship in 2023 and the ODI World Cup 2023 in India, Pat Cummins is going to get a handsome amount of money at the auction.
Australia pacer Pat Cummins became the second most expensive player to be bought in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He broke the record to become the first player ever to cross 20Cr price in the IPL auction. Four franchises entered the bidding war, including RCB who went on to bid at 20.5Cr from their total purse of 23.25Cr, but were eventually outbid by SRH who got a deal worth ₹20.50 crore.
He will represent the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), making it his fourth franchise in the league after the Delhi Daredevils (now renamed as Delhi Capitals), Mumbai Indians, and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Cummins has played 42 matches in his IPL career till now, taking 45 wickets at an economy rate of 8.54. Along with it, he also holds a batting record in the competition for scoring one of the fastest fifties.
Pat Cummins is a quality bowler – Jason Gillespie
In an interview with SEN Sportsday SA, former Australian bowler Jason Gillespie expressed his thoughts on Pat Cummins’ price tag of 20.75Cr in the IPL Auction. He said that Cummins is arguably one of the best bowlers in the world in Test format. However, his style of bowling is not suited to the shortest format, resulting in only glimpses of good performances.
“Pat’s obviously a quality bowler and a quality leader, we’ve seen that, I just don’t think T20 is his best format. I think he’s a Test bowler, personally. I think Test cricket is his absolute bread and butter. He’s a good T20 bowler, make no mistake. But that’s massive overs for me,” former Australia bowler Jason Gillespie told SEN Sportsday SA on Thursday.
Pat Cummins last played a T20 during the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. However, he is expected to be in the scheme of things in the shortest format in the coming months, with the 2024 T20 World Cup scheduled for June 2024.