Mitchell Starc is back at the IPL and KKR would be hoping he brings his international glory to the franchise again that won its two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014.
KKR have also roped back in Gautam Gambhir, the captain who won KKR those two IPL trophies and led them to a Champions League T20 final, in the form of a mentor. Gambhir was at the auction table in December when the hammer went down at INR 24.75 crore and made Mitchell Starc the most expensive player in the history of the IPL.
Starc played in only two IPL seasons in 2014 and 2015 for RCB. He snapped 34 wickets in those two seasons. However, he’s been away from the IPL since then due to injuries, and workload management to prioritise international cricket, where he’s achieved a lot in this period – two ODI World Cup trophies, one T20 World Cup title, the WTC mace, and multiple Ashes wins.
Starc, though, also was bought by KKR in IPL 2018 auction for INR 9.4 crore, but couldn’t play that season due to injury.
Now, he’s back in the IPL and back with KKR, who bought him for a historic amount: INR 24.75 crore.
How much is every single ball from Mitchell Starc worth in IPL 2024?
If we consider that Mitchell Starc will bowl his quota of four overs and will play 14 games in the season, his every single legal ball will be worth INR 7 lakhs.
Ahead of the start of the season, Gautam Gambhir, the KKR mentor, asserted that he is hoping for Starc to replicate his international performances in IPL. Gambhir said, “I don’t think the price tag will be an added pressure for him. I only hope he can do for KKR what he does for Australia in international cricket.”
KKR’s IPL 2024 squad: Shreyas Iyer (C), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain.
