Aaron Finch is all excited to join the Kings XI Punjab

The Kings XI Punjab franchise was out all guns blazing on the first day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 auction. They retained just one player in the player retention option and in a bid to bolster their squad for the upcoming season and to win their maiden IPL trophy, the franchise made some big money signings on Day 1.

The Preity Zinta co-owned team secured the services of swashbuckling Australian batsman Aaron Finch as their second overseas player for the day. The 31-year-old big hitter was purchased by KXIP for a staggering 6.2 crore. Finch played for Gujarat Lions in the previous edition of the tournament.

Earlier, Punjab got their hands on their first overseas players as they used the Right to Match card for South African star David Miller. Mumbai Indians had won the race for Miller with a bid worth Rs 3 crore but KXIP trumped them using their RTM card.

With the likes of KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Yuvraj Singh and Miller in their ranks, Finch joins an explosive line-up of batsmen and it will be interesting to see what kind of impact Finch makes for his latest IPL franchise.

Welcoming the Aussie, KXIP supporters flourished Finch with welcome messages on Twitter. The cricketer also acknowledged their warm wishes and reciprocated writing, “Thanks for all your kind messages! So excited to join @lionsdenkxip!!”

You can see the Tweet below

Thanks for all your kind messages! So excited to join @lionsdenkxip!!

— Aaron Finch (@AaronFinch5) January 27, 2018

Finch becomes the first player to play for seven different IPL franchises

With this new deal, Finch became the first player in IPL history to play for seven different franchises. The in-form batsman started his IPL journey with Rajasthan Royals in the 2010 edition of the IPL where he played only one match before moving to Delhi Daredevils for the next two seasons.

He played the previous edition for now-discarded Gujarat Lions franchise. However, the right-hander failed to live up to his lofty standards scoring 300 runs from 13 matches. He has been in best form in the ongoing series in Australia and KXIP will expect him to carry a similar form.