"We knew Sam Curran would be a 'King'"- Aakash Chopra reacts to all-rounder becoming costliest player in IPL history
It was on the expected lines for former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra that all-rounder Sam Curran became the costliest player in the IPL 2023 auction. He didn't just become the costliest player on Friday, but also broke the all-time record of INR 16.25 crore set by the Rajasthan Royals (RR) when they bought Chris Morris.
INR 18.5 crore was the final price paid by the Punjab Kings (PBKS) to reunite with Curran. In one of his earlier videos, Chopra had predicted that both PBKS and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) would try hard to bag Curran's services and that's exactly what happened on Friday.
In a video on his YouTube channel, here's how Aakash Chopra reacted to the bidding war triggered by Sam Curran:
"We knew Sam Curran would be a 'King' as both Punjab and Chennai wanted him. But Punjab won the bidding war naturally due to their bigger purse and Chennai couldn't afford to go any further as they didn't have enough money."
Aakash Chopra on MI snapping up Cameron Green
While Mumbai Indians (MI) raised quite a few eyebrows last year when they splashed INR 15.25 crore on Ishan Kishan, they went a step further on Friday by making Cameron Green the second-most expensive buy in IPL history.
The all-rounder was snapped up by MI for a whopping INR 17.5 crore and many fans believe he is the ideal replacement for Mumbai legend Kieron Pollard.
Paltan, तुमच्यासाठी our very own Green 🗣️💙
#OneFamily #DilKholKe #MumbaiIndians #TATAIPLAuction MI TV https://t.co/snhN6JZWuc
On this, Aakash Chopra stated:
"Mumbai Indians also had a small purse, but they went all-out for Cameron Green and bagged his services. Which is the ideal position for him to bat though, is a discussion for another day."
He added:
"Mumbai have a number of big-money players like Ishan Kishan and even Jofra Archer, who was unavailable last season. They also paid big money for Tim David last year and now they went hard for Green as Pollard's replacement. But will he really be able to emulate Pollard's quality?"
MI IPL 2023 squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Jofra Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal, Cameron Green, Jhye Richardson, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Raghav Goyal.