Sunrisers Hyderabad broke the bank as they registered the second-biggest buy in Indian Premier League history on Tuesday. The franchise purchased Australia's 2023 World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins for ₹20.50 crores at the auction in Dubai. The Aussie pacer's base price was at ₹2 crore, but SRH came out on top in a mega-bidding war. Initially, he was the most expensive buy, but was later overtaken by a Aussie teammate Mitchell Starc.
The franchise also spent big on Australia's 2023 World Cup final hero Travis Head, acquiring him for ₹6.80 crore, with an initial base price of ₹2 crore. Speaking on Head's signing, Sri Lanka legend and SRH bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan told JioCinema, "We really wanted him (Travis Head) because we needed an opening left-handed batter. Adding to that he can bowl spin as well. I never thought we would get him for that price because of his performance being tremendous in the last couple of years in T20Is and ODIs for Australia."
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"So, we were waiting for this, and we thought that we would have a tough fight with a lot of teams but in the end, CSK came and fought with us. But we knew they don’t need a frontline player as they have Devon Conway, so they will stop somewhere," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"So, we were waiting for this, and we thought that we would have a tough fight with a lot of teams but in the end, CSK came and fought with us. But we knew they don’t need a frontline player as they have Devon Conway, so they will stop somewhere," he added.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga was acquired for ₹1.5 crore by SRH, who have been on the hunt for Rashid Khan's replacement since the Afghan T20 sensation had opted to leave the franchise. SRH also purchased Jaydev Unadkat ( ₹6.8 crore), Akash Singh ( ₹20 lakh), Jhathavedh Subramanyan ( ₹20 lakh). Unadkat's domestic experience could come in handy for the side.
Full list of players acquired by SRH:
Travis Head: ₹6.80 crore
Wanindu Hasaranga: ₹1.50 crore
Pat Cummins: ₹20.50 crores
Jaydev Unadkat: ₹6.8 crore
Akash Singh: ₹20 lakhs
Jhathavedh Subramanyan: ₹20 lakh
Players retained: Aiden Markram (c), Rahul Tripathi, Heinrich Klaasen, Mayank Agarwal, Glenn Phillips, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Washington Sundar, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen, T Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Samad, Upendra Yadav, Nitish Reddy, Sanvir Singh