Kolkata Knight Riders recently created history during the IPL 2024 auction as they welcomed Mitchell Starc in their squad ahead of the 17th edition of IPL, for ₹24.75 Crore, which is the highest amount in the history of the tournament. Mitchell Starc opined and talked about his happiness as he became the most expensive in the history of IPL auction.
Starc’s wife and the Australian women’s cricket team member gave him live updates before the official broadcaster, the star sports network and the 33-year-old Australian could not believe the bid amount for him.
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Mitchell Starc on representing KKR for IPL 2024 as the most expensive player in the tournament
“It was a shock, of course. My wife Alyssa is with the women’s team in India so she was getting updates quicker than what I was seeing on screen. Surprised but thrilled. Our Test squad whatsapp group has been going off to say its our shout to get dinner next. Something to do ahead of the Boxing Day Test. Special night for both of us,” Starc told Star Sports.
“Been a while, yes. I’ve been involved with RCB in 2014-15, then picked up by KKR in 2018 but got injured. But I’ve been prioritising international cricket and Test cricket for Australia. Coming into the back end of this year and next year, it’s much quieter for Australia as a group so excited to be involved. A good chance to play some really competitive T20 cricket in the best T20 league going around with a T20 World Cup coming up,” he added.
“Humbling to still feel like I’m wanted or needed I guess. My gameplay hasn’t changed much across formats except few things here and there. Hopefully the experience can translate to some success. Not too much else to be said,” he said.
KKR Retained Players before auction: Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Jason Roy, Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer
Bought in auction: Mitchell Starc, Chetan Sakariya, KS Bharat, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvnashi, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain
