IPL is that kind of a tournament wherein the best of Indian and International duos have to separate themselves as they go on representing different franchises. The grandest cricketing show on earth has witnessed friends turn into foes, well just for the time being, like Kieron Pollard and Dwyane Bravo, Ishaan Kishan and Shubhman Gill, K.L Rahul and Hardik Pandya. Two of the most hottest properties in cricket, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins being the most recent of them.
Pat Cummins vs Mitchell Starc. INR INR 20.50 crore vs INR 24.75 crore. Hardly a rivalry, even if it’s been talked up ahead of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) game at Eden Gardens tonight. For Cummins, it’s only going to be “weird looking across and seeing him in the other dugout”.
“I will say this: hopefully I don’t have to face Starc because that means our batters have done quite well,” Cummins said at a press conference a day off from the game. “It’s funny… it’s one of the beauties of the IPL; I have been playing with Starcy for 15 years, [and] I can’t remember another game where I have played against him. Also it’s going to be weird looking across and seeing him in the other dugout.”
Pat Cummins has grabbed everyone’s attention since he was declared the captain of the SRH side. This would be the first time that Cummins would be leading a t20 side. On the other hand Mitchell Starc has been the topic since he has been the top-pick at the IPL 2024 auction.
Tonight’s clash between KKR and SRH is going to be held at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Starc would be pretty alien to these conditions and might take some time to adapt but the deck at Kolkata is very much similar to that of home for Pat Cummins as he has played for the KKR in his previous IPl seasons. Keeping the deck and the conditions aside, it’s going to be a mouth watering clash as the audiences speculate these two fast bowling machines go against each other tonight.
The Sportz Planet Desk,
Atharva Shetye.
