Dubai [UAE], December 19 : England's 2018 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan believes that Australia skipper Pat Cummins who broke the roof and became IPL's most expensive player "justifies" his price tag of Rs 20.50 crore.
With a base price of Rs 2 crore, Cummins attracted the attention of Mumbai Indians who entered the bidding war for the first time. As the price continued to rise, MI backed while Royal Challengers Bangalore joined the bidding war against CSK. When it seemed RCB would walk away with the players SRH entered the battle, and a high-bidding war unfolded in the next moments.
Morgan backed Cummins and stated the reasons why Cummins justified his price tag. While appearing during the IPL 2024 Player Auction on Tuesday, Morgan said, "The player that Pat Cummins is and considering the last year-and-a-half that he has had, both with leadership and as a bowler with the World Test Championship winning side, retaining the Ashes in England during the English summer and then leading the Australian ODI team to another ODI World Cup. So, recent form and confidence is a huge contributing factor. It's also a demand-supply issue. There are quite a few teams looking for leadership roles to be fulfilled not only as captain but also in the changing room. So Pat Cummins thoroughly justifies his price tag."
While former Indian spinner Anil Kumble stated that Cummins going for that amount wasn't expected and said, "That's a really high price. Rs 20 crores wasn't expected. We knew he'd go for a higher price but Rs 20 crore, it's created a record. SRH is perhaps looking for a captain and that could be the reason why we see the desperation to get in. Perhaps RCB were also looking at a long-term captain. Good luck to Pat Cummins. Three trophies, but this would probably take the icing on the cake."
Australia's World Test Championship 2023 and World Cup 2023 winning captain has taken 55 wickets in 50 T20Is for Australia, with the best figures of 3/15. His average of 16.90 while batting In 128 T20 games overall, including three fifties also makes him a useful lower-order batter.
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