D’Arcy Short excited to travel to India for the IPL

Australian opener D’Arcy Short was signed by the Rajasthan Royals (RR) for a whopping Rs. 4 crore in the two-day auction that was held late last month in Bengaluru, and the batsman is really excited ahead of his first outing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which will also be his first ever trip to India. The 27-year-old southpaw can be one of the biggest stars in the eleventh edition of the tournament, given the form he displayed for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League.

Highest run scorer in BBL 2018

The highest run-scorer in this year’s BBL with 504 runs from 10 games, Short was instrumental in taking his team to the final of the tournament. But he also admitted that replicating his BBL performance in the Indian subcontinent will not be very easy. Short is looking forward to learning a lot from Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith and the like.

“It feels great to be going to the IPL; it will be my first time to India so I am excited to learn about the people, the culture and of course playing with Rajasthan Royals. There will be so many great players to learn from – guys like Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, ” Short told Sportstar in an exclusive chat.

“Obviously, playing in India presents different challenges. So I’ll certainly be talking to my teammates – both local and international – who have played in India and look at ways to make sure I’m batting deep into the innings,” he added.

An unimpressive debut

Short made his international debut for Australia only last week, in a T20I against New Zealand. And although his debut knock of 4 runs wasn’t too impressive, he stole the show in his fourth T20I. He put up a record partnership worth 121 runs from 8.3 overs with David Warner. The opening batsman contributed a 74, which was instrumental in the team pulling off the highest successful run chase in the history of Twenty20 cricket. After playing 4 T20Is, he has scored 146 runs at an average of 48.66.