Aakash Chopra Stunned as PBKS Retains Sam Curran: Former cricketer turned analyst and commentator Aakash Chopra has commented on Indian Premier League (IPL) side Punjab Kings (PBKS) retaining English all-rounder Sam Curran for a high price of Rs 18.50 Crore.
The KIngs bought Curran in the IPL 2023 auction for what was the highest salary paid to a player in IPL history. While he did have a decent tournament, he came nowhere near justifying his price tag.
Curran scored 276 runs in 14 matches with an average of 27.6 and a strike rate of 135.96 in IPL 2023. He also took 10 wickets in the tournament, but was very costly with the ball in hand, as his economy rate throughout the season was 10.22.
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Usually, when IPL teams buy players at so high of a cost, they tend to release the player into the auction for next season, hoping they could buy them for cheaper next time round. But as all-rounders are always in high demand in T20 cricket, releasing Curran could have proven risky.
Aakash Chopra Stunned as PBKS Retains Sam Curran
Aakash Chopra, however, holds a different opinion. The former Indian team batter reckons that Sam Curran is a ‘non-performing asset’ and a price of Rs. 18.50 Crore is too high for him. In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Chopra said –
“I was extremely surprised. Why did you retain Sam Curran? They have parked 18.50 crore rupees in one place. I won’t call him a non-performing asset, but a very expensive asset for sure. He was sold for 18.50 crore rupees because there were only three all-rounders in the small auction.”
Sam Curran demanded such a high price after his Player of the Tournament performance in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. But Aakash Chopra also commented on how that performance was an outlier in his recent career.
“However, if you see his performances in the last IPL, the SA20 now, or the last year, he hasn’t done anything special for the last 12-17 months. He just played well in the 2022 T20 World Cup and that too because the side boundaries were very big in Australia,” Chopra added.
Sam Curran is currently playing for MI Cap Town in SA20 2024. In the South African franchise tournament, the Englishman has taken 3 wickets and scored 46 runs in four matches.
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