"Kolkata was the team that got hurt when Mitchell Starc said he wouldn't come" - Aakash Chopra on KKR buying Starc for a huge sum in IPL 2024 auction

Aakash Chopra reckons the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) might have had a little pain in their hearts while acquiring Mitchell Starc for an exorbitant amount in the IPL 2024 auction.

The Kolkata-based franchise went into the auction with a remaining purse of ₹32.70 crore. They spent ₹24.75 crore to buy Starc and purchased nine other players for a total sum of ₹6.60 crore.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra pointed out that the Kolkata Knight Riders went after Starc despite a sour previous experience. He explained (0:30):

"Kolkata ran after Mitchell Starc. I felt it might be a little heartburn because they had kept him earlier and he didn't come and they were at a loss.

"Kolkata was the team that got hurt when Mitchell Starc said he wouldn't come because they had built their strategy around the four overseas players and one of them didn't come."

The former India opener added that KKR spending more than 75% of their remaining purse on the Australian seamer showed their desperation to acquire him:

"However, now they have spent 24.75 crores on him. They had close to 32 crore rupees, but to give 25 out of 32 to one player - it was incredible. It shows how much they wanted Mitchell Starc."

The Delhi Capitals and the Mumbai Indians started the bidding war for Starc at the auction. The Kolkata Knight Riders and the Gujarat Titans took over from them before the Titans opted out when the bid reached ₹24.75 crore.

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"They had only two Indian fast bowlers" - Aakash Chopra on why KKR went after Mitchell Starc

Shardul Thakur was one of the seamers released by KKR ahead of the auction. (P/C: iplt20.com)

While acknowledging that the Kolkata Knight Riders needed to acquire seamers, Aakash Chopra observed that spending a fortune on Mitchell Starc denied them a chance to buy Dilshan Madushanka (1:10):

"To be fair, they had only two Indian fast bowlers, Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana, before the auction. Andre Russell - his bowling has been 50-50. So they needed a bowler but a 25-crore bowler - wow.

"The loss after taking a 25-crore bowler is that Gautam (Gambhir) likes Madushanka a lot, but they couldn't get him."

The cricketer-turned-commentator reckons KKR bought Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Sherfane Rutherford as backups for Sunil Narine and Andre Russell respectively. He elaborated:

"As they had released all fast bowlers, they bought Chetan Sakariya and Gus Atkinson. Then they bought Mujeeb Ur Rahman. I think he is a backup for Sunil Narine.

"They were going for Rovman Powell earlier, but since they couldn't get him, they picked Sherfane Rutherford later. They are trying him as a backup for Russell."

Mujeeb Ur Rahman (₹2 crore) was KKR's second-most expensive buy at the auction. The two-time champions paid ₹1.50 crore to acquire Sherfane Rutherford, the only other player to cost them more than a crore.