Exactly a month on from India’s heartbreaking loss in the ICC Men’s World Cup final, Australian cricketers once again dominated the headlines of the Indian cricketing landscape, as two Aussies made history at the IPL mini-auction in Dubai. While Australian captain Pat Cummins initially broke the IPL auction record with a Rs 20.50 crore price tag, paid by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), his pace-partner, Mitchell Starc, soon went a step further, with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) shelling out Rs 24.75 crore for the big quick. But how smart was that decision, and what does it mean for the Knights?
Starc is expected to not only restrict the flow of runs at the start, but also pick up crucial wickets at the death
On the surface, Starc is a prized asset, particularly for this KKR side. With a returning Gautam Gambhir expected to bring back an identity and hunger for winning titles into the camp, Starc’s arrival should give the Purple Army plenty to cheer about. Even though KKR had a season to forget last year, there were many positives for the team, particularly in the bowling department. On spinning tracks at the Eden Gardens, KKR’s spin trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Suyash Sharma wove webs around visiting teams, and was one of the best spin attacks in the league. However, fast bowlers frequently struggled on the slow pitches of Kolkata, and it is here that Starc can make the difference.
The 33-year-old left-armer is someone who routinely takes the pitch out of the equation, bowling sharp deliveries with swing and pace that can trouble even the best of batters. Few bowlers are as good as Starc, even on their best days, at naturally moving the ball up front or nailing yorkers towards the end of the innings. Starc was last seen at Eden in the World Cup second semi-final, where his spell of three for 34 was instrumental in restricting a red-hot South African batting lineup to a mere 212. Starc’s addition to the KKR lineup means that opposing teams will have to rethink their approach when batting at the Eden, which has often been to maximise runs while the KKR quicks bowling in the powerplay, with the middle overs generally dominated by spinners. Starc is expected to not only restrict the flow of runs at the start of the innings, but also pick up crucial wickets at the death. With 73 wickets in 58 T20Is at a strike rate of 18 for Australia and 34 wickets in 27 IPL games at a strike rate of 17.06, Starc’s numbers in the shortest format are steady without being spectacular.
But Starc is not just a bowler, which is a criticism some fans have levelled at him, and has recently demonstrated a lot of growth as a batter. In the semi-final mentioned above, Starc scored a fighting 16 not out in tricky conditions to guide his team to the final. Ardent Indian fans may still remember Starc’s blistering 99 in Mohali in 2013, an early sign of how he is no slouch with the bat.
Replacing Cummins and living up to the price tag
Starc can be a match-winner for KKR just like his compatriot, Pat Cummins, had been on select occasions in the past Getty Images
In many ways, KKR acquired Starc as a direct replacement for Cummins, whom they let go after having paid Rs 15.50 crore for his services in the 2020 mega auction. It is unfair yet tempting to conduct a like-for-like comparison of the two Aussie quicks, both generally and in the IPL. For one, they play different roles and bowl at different phases of the game. Furthermore, Cummins has a longer IPL record than Starc, as the latter will play in the IPL after a gap of eight long years, a period during which Cummins has featured extensively in the tournament. KKR fans will hope that Starc can be the consistent match-winner that Cummins only showed signs of being during his time in purple and gold.
However, the question remains — is Starc worth the record-breaking price that was paid for him? As the dust settled on his purchase, many recalled how Starc’s price is higher than the Rs 20 crore total team salary cap that the IPL had started with in 2008. Even in the warped dynamics of a modern IPL auction, Rs 24.75 crore is a mind-boggling amount, notwithstanding the fact that the Gujarat Titans (GT) pushed KKR to the inflated figure in their own quest to land Starc. There is, of course, an argument that KKR could instead have gone after two or three players for the same sum, perhaps building bench strength for some of their mercurial stars such as Venkatesh Iyer or Andre Russell. Fans may also fear for Starc himself, who will be coming to the IPL after three-format series with Pakistan, the West Indies, and New Zealand. KKR could, therefore, welcome a fatigued or injured Starc, or possibly the wayward bowler whom Harsha Bhogle had referred to as Starc’s twin when India toured Australia in 2021. Finally, there is the ever-present argument that a player with such a high price tag might buckle under the burden and fail to live up to the valuation.
KKR generally have a good track record of auction splurges paying off
KKR spent big money on Gautam Gambhir in 2011, but it paid dividends with two titles in 2012 and 2014 TT Archives
However, I do not place much weight on such arguments. Each team arrives at the IPL with the same total purse, and the amount of money they bring to the auction table is a function of how they retain or release players. The outlandish price for Starc is something well within KKR’s rights to pay, and a player with Starc’s experience (a three-time world champion) can be banked upon to handle the burden of the price tag. Moreover, KKR generally have a good track record of auction splurges paying off, with previous high-price acquisitions such as Gautam Gambhir (Rs 11.04 crore in 2011) and Yusuf Pathan (Rs 9.66 crore in 2011) leading them to IPL glory twice, even though Cummins and Chris Lynn (Rs 9.60 crore in 2018) failed to live up to their billing.
With Gambhir’s return to the KKR thinktank coinciding with Shreyas Iyer resuming captaincy of the team, the acquisition of Starc (alongside other smart buys such as Mujeeb Ur Rahman for Rs 2 crore) will surely send spirits soaring in the KKR camp. And that injection of confidence may be where Starc adds most value. The presence of a talisman has galvanised several IPL teams in the past and nobody doubts Starc’s talent to do the same for KKR. Starc has already added one star above a team’s crest in 2023. Can he add another for KKR in 2024?
Sourojit Ghosh is a fourth year PhD candidate in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. His academic research focuses on studying human-centeredness in social recommender systems and designing such systems. Outside of his research, Sourojit writes poetry and short thrillers, and is an ardent fan of cricket and football.
