Former India opener Aakash Chopra suggested that the Australian pacer Mitchell Starc will hit the paydirt in the upcoming Indian Premier League Auction. Starc, who last played IPL in 2015, has put his name in the auction and set his base price to INR 2 crore.
The left-arm paceman has claimed 34 wickets in 27 IPL matches at an economy rate of 7.17. He was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2018 for a whopping INR 9.4 crore, however, he backed out from the season and was later released by the franchise next season.
The 33-year-old opted out in the last few seasons to focus on international cricket and manage his workload.
Meanwhile, the star pacer will go under the hammer again and is expected to be on the radar of a few franchises.
Chopra feels that the most popular Australian in the auction is going to be Mitchell Starc who did well in the past playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“Mitchell Starc would take away a million dollars. Almost everyone who plays in Australia have registered for the Tata IPL auctions. But the most popular of them is undoubtedly Starc. He is a gun bowler with the new ball, picks up early wickets and bowls yorkers as well. Starc is also a good death bowler and has impressive IPL numbers, as well. He did well playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the past. However, since then, the number of times he has backed out from playing in the league is a concerning factor,” Aakash Chopra said while hosting JioCinema’s daily sports show #AAKASHVANI.
However, Chopra also pointed out that Starc has a history of backing out from the tournament at the last minute and the franchises will keep that thing in mind before going after him in the auction.
“After a team buys him, if he backs out at the last moment in order to focus on the Ashes or any personal reason, then the team is in a spot of bother. They will have the money released but key players will not be there. Even in this auction, apart from Starc, there will be other key bowlers like Gerald Coetzee, Josh Hazlewood, Dilshan Madushanka, Ben Dwarshuis and more. But, if you buy Starc and he backs out later, then you cannot go back to these names as well as they won’t be available anymore. I won’t be surprised if Starc goes for a huge sum of money but I will be a little sceptical, what if he backs out,” Chopra added.
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