IPL 2024 Auction: AB de Villiers, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh in awe of Mitchell Starc's record-breaking bid

Appearing on JioCinema’s ‘Match Center Live Auction Special’ during the IPL 2024 Player Auction on Tuesday, JioCinema IPL experts analysed fast bowler Mitchell Starc’s move to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 24.75 crore.

Excerpts:

AB de Villiers: Absolutely unbelievable. I think we’re all just in awe. I think the trick lies if you win the World Cup, then things like this happen. You can only be happy for the guys. Obviously, KKR are under a bit of pressure having spent most of their purse, but I am sure they'll pick up good value buys later on. It’s just incredible and shows you the power of this tournament and where it’s going. Every single year it gets bigger and better and stronger. Happy for those two, those stalwarts know what to do with the ball in their hand. As we mentioned before, the bowlers were going to be hot property and we were not disappointed at all.

Zaheer Khan: Well, everyone was expecting that fast bowlers would be in demand – that is something which the small auctions always bring, the clarity of thought from all the franchises. But I don’t think anyone would have ever imagined that it would reach this kind of a level! Rs 20 crore is a big barrier, it has been broken today and how. So, I think it’s just about these two teams going by that one player, having that clarity of the playing eleven and holding the nerves and back themselves through and through.

RP Singh: I am a little surprised with the money KKR spent on Starc. I didn’t feel that anyone would cross the Rs 20 crore mark. The second thing is Mitchell Starc will be playing the IPL after a long time. It’s not that he’s put up outstanding performances consistently. He has not played the IPL for eight years. And it’s not that he has played say five T20s and won three matches on the back of his own abilities. If they spend so much money on a player, then the captain may expect him to win 40% of the matches and ensure that the player has solid impact on games. So, if I am born again, I should be born in Australia (laughs) and I should be a left-arm fast bowler again. 

Aakash Chopra: I beg to differ slightly. I am doing a bit of man-to-man marking between Gerald Coetzee and Mitchell Starc. Surely, there can’t be such a vast difference between the quality of the bowling between them that Coetzee goes for five times less than Starc.

Mike Hesson on Gujarat Titans’ strategy: Well, they basically dug themselves a hole. So, they waited the whole auction just to get Mitchell Starc, which to be fair, RCB almost did and then they decided to go for Alzarri Joseph beforehand because they knew what is going to unfold. It’s bizarre because what is GT going to do now? It’s one of those strategies that can leave you exposed and GT is going to go home with a lot of money because there is not a lot to spend in terms of what is left. They’ll probably go all out for Shahrukh Khan now because they can. But I think RCB and MI are the ones who have done really well to get out of this – to get Gerald Coetzee and Dilshan Madushanka under 10 cr with all this chaos going around them I think are really good buys.”