Gautam Gambhir, two-time IPL-winning captain with Kolkata Knight Riders, feels that the price KKR paid to sign Australian pacer Mitchell Starc was justified given the wealth of experience and knowledge he brings with him.
Starc will return to the Indian Premier League for the first time since Season 8, when he last appeared for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2015. The 2024 edition will be his third IPL season and the amount of time Starc missed in that time it has only made a better and much more experienced cricketer.
Since 2015, the 33-year-old has won 3 major ICC trophies with Australia – the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup, the 2023 World Test Championship and the 50-over Cricket World Cup last month. One of the main reasons Starc stayed out of the IPL circuit was to focus on international cricket, but his much-awaited return is just a few months away.
When auctioneer Mallika Sagar put her name in yesterday, there was a sense of excitement and nervousness within the Coca-Cola sphere. After all, who wouldn’t want a senior pacer like Mitchell Starc to lead their bowling attack?
Franchises like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders seemed very serious about buying the Australian. The bidding war continued to intensify and the 3 teams were not willing to let the two-time world champion go.
It continued till a point when KKR raised the price to Rs 24.75 crore, eventually forcing RCB and GT to give up the chase. Mentor Gautam Gambhir and team owner Venky Mysore had the last laugh after Mallika Sagar sealed the deal to make Mitchell Starc the most expensive entity ever.
They were both really delighted to welcome Starc, who will not only lead the bowling front but will also help other players in the team improve.
Gautam Gambhir believes someone had to pay the price for Mitchell Starc
After the successful purchase of Mitchell Starc, Gautam Gambhir could not hide his happiness and stated that the 33-year-old would play a pivotal role for KKR in IPL 2024. “He is an X-factor, there is no doubt about that. “Someone who can bowl with the new ball, play the death overs and most importantly, someone who can lead the attack.”
“It will be a great help for our two national players because they are both very talented and you need someone to help them in the middle and Starc covers those bases. It’s not just about bowling, it’s also about leading the attack and helping everyone around you. Then someone will have to pay for it.”
Mitchell Starc last appeared in the IPL auction in 2018 when KKR expressed interest and bought him for Rs 9.40 crore. However, the Australian did not play that season but KKR will finally be happy to have him back.
In his only two seasons in 2014 and 2015, the 33-year-old took 34 wickets in 27 matches for RCB.
KKR full squad for IPL 2024: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer (c), Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain.