Former Indian opener, Aakash Chopra has made predictions for the five most expensive buys ahead of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction. The auction is scheduled to be taking place on February 18 in Chennai and eyes will be on some of the big names from the cricket world. To start with, Chopra named Mitchell Starc, the veteran Australian left-arm pacer amongst the expensive buys.
Starc made his IPL debut for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) back in 2014 and played just a couple of seasons for them. But keeping in mind his potential, he can be a gun bowler for any IPL team. As his second pick, Chopra has included Glenn Maxwell in his list. The latter hasn’t been having a great time in the recent seasons of the IPL, but his form for his national team has been no less than stupendous.
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As his third pick, Aakash Chopra surprisingly named England’s Dawid Malan, who already has quite a few T20 tons to his name. Mujeeb Ur Rahman was released by Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and the former Indian opener reckons that the Afghanistan tweaker will attract massive bids. Chopra also predicted Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan to be amongst the hottest picks in the upcoming IPL auction.
About Starc, Chopra, earlier, had said that he can be expected to become the highest-paid cricketer of IPL 2021. He took to Twitter and wrote, “Mujeeb to go for 7-8 crore. Green for 5-6 Crore Starc to become the most expensive IPL buy ever. Jamieson to receive solid interest. 5-7 crore Jason Roy 4-6 crore Maxwell and NCN will still get decent contracts. Subject to their availability of course. #EarlyCall #IPL2021.”
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Chopra had also said that RCB won’t mind shelling out amounts up to INR 19 crores for the Aussie paceman. He had said, “RCB have 11 total slots vacant, out of which three are overseas slots. So, you feel that they have to shop whole-heartedly because they don’t have the overseas options in the playing XI ready.”
He further added, “RCB will run after Mitchell Starc if he is available. They have money, so they can run after him. They can go to 15-19 crores also if they wish to do so.”
