IPL 2020 Auction: What Happened in the Pat Cummins Bidding War?

Australia’s strike bowler Pat Cummins becomes the most expensive oversees buy in the history of the Indian Premier League. Kolkata Knight Riders closed the bidding war for the 26-year-old pacer at Rs 15.50 crore in the IPL 2020 Auction.

Cummins, who was expected to be among the biggest buys in IPL 2020 Auction, was being chased by Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, the Knight Riders made a late entry and snapped the biggest foreign buy in IPL.

Pat Cummins bidding war – As it happened

After Yusuf Pathan and New Zealand’s Colin Grandhomme went unsold. It was Australia’s Pat Cummins is the next one out of the bag. The Bidding war on between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore for right-handed pacer Pat Cummins started with a base price of Rs 2 crore.

The Virat Kohli led team began an intense bid for the Cummins and Delhi Capitals joined to push it to Rs 2.4 crores. DC and RCB were not ready to put their paddles down as the price was up to Rs. 5.50 crore in no time! RCB then escalated the bid it to Rs 6.25 crores.

However, DC wasn’t looking to back out as the bid was with Delhi at Rs 7 crores. Cummins’ stock was then up by Rs. 10 crores as DC and RCB continued bidding without any hesitations with the former in lead. The bid climbed to Rs 11 crore, with Delhi Capitals and then 11.25 crore with RCB. RCB raised the paddle again to get it up to Rs 12.25 crore. Both teams were at a point where they would lose half their purse on Cummins.

The bid reached Rs 13.75 crore with RCB before the Australian hit Rs 14.25 crore. Delhi then took it up to 14.5 crores. RCB then raised the paddle again after some discussion as Pat Cummins became the most expensive overseas buy ever. In a surprise move, KKR swooped in and raised the bid to Rs 15 crores. The latecomers then outbid RCB and DC to snap in Pat Cummins for a whopping Rs 15.5 crores.

IPL records broken by Cummins

This is the second most expensive buy in the history of the IPL, only behind the 16 CR bid Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) made on Yuvraj Singh in 2015. In terms of most expensive players in the IPL, the Aussie becomes the third most expensive – after Virat Kohli, who RCB had retained for 17 CR, and Yuvraj Singh.