Mumbai Indians bought Australian pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile at a price of INR 8 crore in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 auction, being held in Kolkata today.
Mumbai Indians engaged in a fierce bidding battle with the Chennai Super Kings for the 32-year-old before roping him in at a rate of 800% above his base price.
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Coulter-Nile will be heading to Mumbai for his second stint with the franchise after making his IPL debut with them in 2013. The Australian has also plied his trade with the Delhi Daredevils and the Kolkata Knight Riders.
On the other hand, legendary South African pacer Dale Steyn went unsold at a base price of Rs 2 crore. The 36-year-old has declared retirement from all forms of international cricket earlier this year.
Earlier, Pat Cummins and Glenn Maxwell emerged as the costliest players of the auction so far. While KKR dug a deep hole of INR 15.5 crore in their pocket for Cummins, Maxwell will be fetching 10.75 crore from the Kings XI Punjab.
Chris Lynn and Aaron Finch were sold to Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) respectively. While Lynn was sold at his base price of Rs 2 crore, Finch was bought at 4.4 crore.
England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The 2019 World Cup-winning skipper is heading for his second stint with Kolkata at a price of INR 5.25 crore.
English pace-bowling duo of Sam Curran and Chris Woakes were bought by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Delhi Capitals respectively. While Curran went to Chennai at a price of INR 5.5 crore, while Delhi got Woakes at 1.5 crore.
More about IPL 2020 auction:
Of the 997 cricketers who had registered for the upcoming auction, 338 were selected. Among the players who are going under the hammers, 190 are Indians and 143 are from different overseas countries. There are 3 cricketers from the Associate Nations as well.
Australia, with 37 players in the shortlisted candidates, have the highest representation after India. They will be followed by South Africa with 23 players, 22 from England, 19 from the West Indies, 18 from New Zealand and 14 from Sri Lanka and five from Bangladesh.
Six players namely, Vinay Kumar, Ashoke Dinda, Matthew Wade, Robin Bist, Sanjay Yadav and Jake Weatherald were included at the last minutes before the auction.
The United States of America (USA) pacer Ali Khan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) pacer Zahoor Khan and Scotland’s George Munsey are the three cricketers from Associate Nations.
