Australia's Mitchell Starc became the most expensive player in Indian Premier League history, after he was brought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 24.75 crore at the IPL auction held in Dubai on Tuesday.
Starc broke the record held by Pat Cummins, who was brought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for a sum of Rs 20.5 crore at the same auction on Tuesday.
Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals were involved in an bidding war before Kolkata Knight Riders came in and were later joined in by Gujarat Titans.
Eventually, the two-time champions outbid the rest to buy Starc for the record-breaking sum. The left-arm seamer played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the league for two seasons in 2014 and 2015 and put himself in the auction, ahead of the 2024 season.
In addition to Starc, KKR also acquired the services of wicket-keeper KS Bharat at the auction and at the end of set 3, were left with Rs 6.95 crore in their purse.
Some of the other expensive purchases in the auction included Alzarri Joseph to Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 11.5 crore, Shivam Mavi to Lucknow Super Giants for Rs 6.8 crore and Umesh Yadav to 2022 champions Gujarat Titans for Rs 5.8 crore.
This is the first time that the auction has been held overseas, with the Coca-Cola Arena playing host to the event which has seen representatives of all 10 teams trying to strengthen their existing squads.
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