Legendary Indian National Cricket Team batsman Sunil Gavaskar is skeptical about the Australian National Cricket Team left-arm batsman. Mitchell Starc To fetch a ‘record price’ in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction.
Sunil Gavaskar has said that Mitchell Starc will not attract huge bids in the auction as the Indian Premier League franchises will not be too desperate to acquire his services.
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Mitchell Starc became the most expensive player in the IPL 2024 auction
Australian National Cricket Team all-rounder Mitchell Starc broke all records in the Indian Premier League 2024 mini-auction and became the most expensive player in the history of the league.
Several franchises engaged in fierce bidding wars to acquire the pacer’s services, but it was the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise that eventually managed to land him.
The franchise splashed out INR 24.75 crore to buy him, making Mitchell Starc the most expensive player in IPL history.
Starc failed to regain the faith of the franchise as they failed in the group stage. The pacer has consistently leaked runs and failed to score with the following Harshit Rana and Andre Russell looks more threatening than that.
However, as the competition moved into the playoffs, Mitchell Starc unleashed his monster mode and single-handedly won matches for the team, playing a key role in their third title win.
In total, in 14 matches, Starc picked up 17 wickets for Kolkata Knight Riders at an average of 26.11, an economy of 10.61 and a strike rate of 14.7.
So I am not so sure if he will go for a record price – Sunil Gavaskar
Speaking on Star Sports show ‘Game Plan’, Gavaskar said that Star will not fetch a huge amount in the auction to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“I think Mitchell Starc has played well in the last two games. Semi-finals and finals in that sense, but before that he was quite expensive, conceding a lot of runs in the beginning, conceding a lot of runs in the last few overs too. Therefore, I am not so sure that it will go for the record price we got in the previous auction.”
Notably, after Starc KKR decided to retain Rinku Singh (₹ 13 crore), Varun Chakaravarthy (₹ 12 crore), Sunil Narine (₹ 12 crore), Andre Russell (₹ 12 crore), Harshit Rana (₹ 4 crore) was released. ), and Ramandeep Singh (₹4 crore).
KKR could have gone for him but not 24 crore – Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar further said that Kolkata Knight Riders may bid for him in the auction to rebuild the IPL 2024 winning team, but they will not spend anywhere near INR 24 crore. He said:
“KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) would want him back in the team because you want a winning combination, you want to get your winning combination back as much as possible. So KKR can go for him, but not 24 crore.”
