BGT: Cummins confirms Hazlewood ruled out of remainder of the series
Australia skipper Pat Cummins has confirmed that fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood will be out of the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series due to calf injury.
Following a jam-packed playing schedule in 2019, Australia pace spearhead Pat Cummins is going to miss the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL) as he will take a break after Australia’s three-game ODI tour of India in January.
Cummins, who recently bagged a whopping INR 15.5 crore at the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction and became the most expensive foreign buy ever in the league, could have joined Josh Hazelwood and Steve Smith in signing on for the back-end of the 9th season of BBL, but he opted to take a break. The 26-year-old pacer would have turned out for Sydney Thunder in the BBL.
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“We’re hoping he comes in and buys us pizza,” Thunder coach Shane Bond jokingly said after their abandoned game against the Adelaide Strikers. “I’ll definitely be inviting him in (to the changerooms) for a few games – it’s his shout.
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“He’s a great man, he is great around our team. He was great for us (in previous seasons) and we respected the fact that he needs a break.
“We just said if he wanted to come back he was always welcome here.”
Notably, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) paid a heavy sum of INR 15.5 crore to rope in Cummins in IPL auctions held on Thursday.
The pacer, who had a base price of INR 2 crore, was always supposed to be in high demands but the bidding war that the franchises engaged in for him went beyond expectations.
KKR was the last entrant in the battle fought between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC) and bought their former employee in the slog overs with the record bid.
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