Reports: Quinton de Kock joins Mumbai Indians in the IPL players trade
Royal Challengers Bangalore have agreed to sell their South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock to three-time champions Mumbai Indians in a all-money deal in the upcoming players' trade. De Kock was bought by the Bangalore franchise for INR 2.8 crore in the 2018 players auction and was with the Virat Kohli-led side for just one season.
According to reports in ESPNcricinfo, Mumbai have bought De Kock at that price and to offset the deal, they have released Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman (INR 2.2 crore, USD 343,000) and Sri Lankan offspinner Akila Dananjaya (INR 50 lakh, USD 78,000) from their squad.
De Kock, who is one of the best limited-overs batsmen going around at the moment, played just eight out of the 14 games for his team last season and managed to score just 201 runs at a strike-rate of just less than 125, numbers that below-par considering his standards.
The addition of De Kock will be a welcome move for the Rohit Sharma-led side as he is likely to open the batting with West Indies opener Evin Lewis. In spite of Mumbai already having the services of Ishan Kishan and Aditya Tare as the wicketkeepers, it is understood that they have opted for the South African for his exploits at the top than his work behind the stumps.
Mumbai Indians will be De Kock's fourth IPL franchise as he has already been a part of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first 11 editions of the tournament in which he has scored 927 runs in 34 innings at an average of 28 and a strike-rate of 125.6 with the help of six fifties and one century.
The IPL has two main trading windows with the first one starting immediately at the end of the season stretching to a month before the auction and the second one from after the auction till the start of the tournament.