Starc has not played in the IPL since 2015 and the left-arm quick’s return to the fray drew a bidding war that ended in an unprecedented bid of £2.34million (24.75 crore rupees) from Kolkata Knight Riders.
Cummins had earlier been picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for just under £2million (20.5 crore), with both fees eclipsing the £1.77m Punjab Kings paid for Curran last year. Starc and Cummins had both signed up with a base price of less than £200,000.
Cummins is making his comeback to the tournament after a one-year absence to focus on his international commitments, during which he has captained Australia to glory in the World Test Championship and 50-over World Cup on Indian soil.
While those successes placed a premium on the available Australian talent, England’s terrible World Cup campaign saw their stock fall on the trading floor in Dubai.
Veteran Chris Woakes landed a deal worth a fraction under £400,000 as he joined team-mates Curran and Liam Livingstone at Punjab Kings, while Harry Brook was snapped up for around £380,000 by Delhi Capitals.
Brook had been released after one season of a £1.3m deal with Sunrisers and the Yorkshireman settled for a healthy but much-reduced payday.
He hit one superb century in his first IPL campaign but was otherwise badly short of runs with just 190 in 11 matches.
Sunrisers also splurged on another Australian, Travis Head, who capped a stellar year with a match-winning 137 in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad. He cost around £645,000 (6.8 crore) as he returned to the tournament for the first time since 2017.
West Indies T20 captain Rovman Powell was the first player to go under the hammer at the event in Dubai and fetched a surprisingly lavish £700,000 bid from Rajasthan Royals, while New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell scooped the biggest cheque of his career when he went to Chennai Super Kings for £1.3million.
CSK also signed Mitchell’s fellow Kiwi Rachin Ravindra, the breakout star of the World Cup, for a modest £170,000.
The Indian Premier League franchise announced the development on Twitter earlier on Thursday.
"Over the last few months, I have been a part of the CWI bubble, CPL bubble followed by the IPL bubble, and I wish to mentally recharge and refresh myself," Gayle said in a statement.
"I want to refocus on helping the West Indies in the T20 World Cup and would like to take a break in Dubai. My thanks to the Punjab Kings for giving me the time off. My wishes and hopes are with the squad always. All the very best for the games coming up."
So far this season, the 42-year-old Gayle has played 37 matches for the West Indies, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Quetta Gladiators, and Kings.
Anil Kumble, the Kings head coach said he respects Gayle’s decision.
"I've played against Chris and have coached him at Punjab Kings and all through the years I've known him, he has always been an absolute professional and we as a team respect his decision and desire to prepare himself for the T20 World Cup," Kumble said.
The ICC T20 World Cup bowls off on October 17 with the defending champions West Indies opening their defence of the title on October 23.
Woakes is on England duty in the West Indies so was tucked up in bed when he went under the hammer in Dubai, where the 34-year-old fetched a fraction under £400,000 (4.2 crore rupees) on Tuesday.
The player of the series in this summer’s drawn Ashes will have familiar company in the Kings dressing room next year, with Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone and Jonny Bairstow already retained by the franchise.
And linking up with Kings coach Bayliss is the cherry on top for Woakes, with the pair both instrumental in England’s white-ball transformation from also-rans to World Cup winners in 2019.
“It’s a nice feeling to wake up here in the Caribbean and see that I have been picked up by Punjab in the auction,” said the 34-year-old, who has not featured in the last two editions of the IPL.
“The IPL is obviously an amazing tournament to be a part of and we have a nice little contingent of England players in the squad with Jonny, Sam and Liam.
“It’ll be great to join up with Trevor Bayliss as well given the success I’ve had with him as a coach, so I can’t wait to get going.”
Harry Brook was another of England’s travelling contingent in the Caribbean to get picked up, signed for around £380,000 (4cr) by Delhi Capitals.
The fee is vastly reduced from the £1.3million he was paid by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2023 edition of the tournament, when he amassed one century but returned just 190 runs in his other 11 innings.
Nevertheless, Brook is relishing a return to the IPL and especially the chance to work with former Australia captain and now Capitals coach Ricky Ponting.
“Playing against the best players in the world is something I thrive off and the IPL is one of the biggest stages to play on,” said the Yorkshireman
“Delhi have some unbelievable players already and I can’t wait to work with Ricky Ponting and see if we can win a first title for the team.”
Gayle hit four fours and two sixes in his 28-ball 40 as the Kings scored 221 for 6 in their 20 overs.
Gayle and KL Rahul put on 67 for the second wicket after they had lost Mayank Argawal for 14 with the score on 22.
Rahul and Deepak Hooda put on 105 for the third wicket, 64 of them coming from Hooda’s bat plundered four fours and sixes in his 28-ball bat.
Nicholas Pooran failed to trouble the scorers out first ball. Rahul eventually fell for 91 in the final over having hit seven fours and five sixes in his 50-ball innings. However, after has dismissed only one more run was scored from the remaining four deliveries.
Left-arm medium-pacer Chetan Sakariya claimed the wickets of Rahul Agarwal and Jyhe Richardson to return figures of 3-31 from his four overs.
Chris Morris, who got Gayle, took 2-41.
Needing 222 for victory, the Royals chase was led by Sanju Samson who a fantastic hundred. With his team needing five runs to win from the last ball, Samson was caught in the deep, going for a six over sweeper cover.
Arriving at the crease after Ben Stokes was out for a duck, Samson plundered the Kings bowling scoring 119 runs off just 63 balls during and hit 12 fours and seven magnificent sixes.
Unfortunately, he did not have much support as Jos Butler and Riyan Parag each had cameos before getting out for 25 but were unable to stay with Samson. Shivan Dube also got 23, but he, too, didn’t last long.
Asrshdeep Singh who got Samson’s vital wicket returned figures of 3-35. Mohammed Sami took 2-33.
The 42-year-old has been one of the tournament’s most successful and recognisable players since first appearing at the tournament in 2009. The batsman, however, struggled to find his way last season while representing the Punjab Kings, managing just 193 runs from 10 games.
In addition, the batsman also made the headline after being surprisingly dropped on his birthday and eventually left the tournament early. In the previous season, Gayle eventually scored an impressive 288 in 7 games but was left out of the team for the first 6 matches.
“For the last couple of years, the way the IPL went about, I felt like I wasn’t treated properly. So I thought ‘okay, you (Gayle) didn’t get the respect you deserved after you did so much for the sport and IPL,” Gayle told The Mirror UK.
“So, I said ‘okay, that’s it, I’m not going to bother to enter the draft,’ so I left it as it is. There is always going to be life after cricket so I’m just trying to adapt to normality,” he added.
Much like his international career, however, Gayle does not believe his tenure in the IPL is over and claims he could return next season.
“Next year I’m coming back, they need me! I’ve represented three teams in the IPL, Kolkata, RCB, and Punjab. Between RCB and Punjab, I would love to get a title, with one of those two teams. I had a great stint with RCB where I was more successful within the IPL and Punjab, they’ve been good. I love to explore and I love challenges so let’s see what happens,” the 42-year-old said.
Cummins sat out the 2023 tournament to focus on international cricket but became even hotter property after leading his side to the World Test Championship and last month’s 50-over World Cup on Indian soil.
Four teams vied for the fast bowler’s signature and Sunrisers Hyderabad ended up paying 20.5 crore rupees, eclipsing the previous high of 18.5 crore (£1.77m) Punjab Kings paid for English all-rounder Sam Curran last year.
Cummins, 30, had entered with a base price of just under £200,000 and saw the bidding war up his fee by a factor of 10.
Sunrisers had plenty of budget to play with having released Brook after one season of a £1.3m deal, with the Yorkshireman picking up a healthy but much-reduced payday with the Capitals.
He hit one superb century in his first IPL campaign but was otherwise badly short of runs with just 190 in 11 matches.
Woakes was later drafted for just under £400,000 by Punjab, joining his England team-mates Curran and Liam Livingstone.
Sunrisers also splurged on Cummins’ fellow Australian Travis Head, who capped a stellar year with a match-winning 137 in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad. He cost around £645,000 (6.8 crore) as he returned to the tournament for the first time since 2017.
West Indies T20 captain Rovman Powell was the first player to go under the hammer at the event in Dubai and fetched a surprisingly lavish £700,000 bid from Rajasthan Royals, while New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell scooped the biggest cheque of his career when he went to Chennai Super Kings for £1.3million.
CSK also signed Mitchell’s fellow Kiwi Rachin Ravindra, the breakout star of the World Cup, for a modest £170,000.
Pooran went to the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise for 10.75 crore (USD 1.43 million).
The Sunrisers will be his third IPL franchise after previously representing the Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings.
Jason Holder, formerly of the Sunrisers, will be suiting up for the new Lucknow Super Giants after being snapped up for 8.5 crore (USD 1.16 million).
Dwayne Bravo and Shimron Hetmyer were the only other West Indians sold on day 1 to the Chennai Super Kings for 4.4 crore (USD 583,953.04) and the Rajasthan Royals for 8.5 crore, respectively.
Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and West Indies white-ball captain Kieron Pollard were all retained by their respective franchises before the auction.
Indian left-hander Ishan Kishan had the honour of being the most expensive pick-up of this year’s auction after going to the Mumbai Indians for 15.25 crore (USD 2.03 million).
Day 2 of the auction takes place on Sunday.
The hosts first posted 199-8 from their 20 overs after winning the toss and batting first.
Quinton de Kock was the main scorer for the Super Giants with a 38-ball 54 at the top of the innings.
Nicholas Pooran, who captained the team in this game, hit three fours and three sixes on his way to 42 off just 21 balls while Krunal Pandya finished 43* off 22 balls including four fours and two sixes.
Sam Curran took 3-28 from his four overs for the Kings.
Punjab were then restricted to 178-5 from 20 overs in their reply despite a 50-ball 70 from Shikhar Dhawan and 42 from his opening partner, Jonny Bairstow.
Liam Livingstone also made 28* for the Kings as debutant Mayank Yadav ripped through the batting order with his impressive quick bowling on the way to figures of 3-27 from his four overs.
Mohsin Khan provided good support for Yadav with 2-34 from his four overs.
Full Scores: Lucknow Super Giants 199-8 from 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 54, Krunal Pandya 43*, Nicholas Pooran 42, Sam Curran 3-28, Arshdeep Singh 2-30)
Punjab Kings 178-5 from 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 70, Jonny Bairstow 42, Liam Livingstone 28*, Mayank Yadav 3-27, Mohsin Khan 2-34)
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the Kings posted 179-7 off their 20 overs thanks to a top-score of 57 off 47 balls from captain Shikhar Dhawan.
Spinner Varun Chakravarthy led the way with 3-26 from his four overs while pacer Harshit Rana took 2-33 from three overs for the Knight Riders.
In reply, captain Nitish Rana made a 38 ball 51 while Andre Russell contributed 42 and Jason Roy 38 as the Knight Riders successfully reached 182-5 off their 20 overs.
Russell’s knock came off just 23 balls and included a 20-run penultimate over leaving the Knight Riders needing six to win off the last over.
The Jamaican fell off the penultimate ball of the match with KKR needing two to win before Rinku Singh, who finished 21* off 10 balls, hit the final ball bowled by Arshdeep Singh for four to seal the win.
Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar took 2-23 off his four overs for Punjab.
“Growing up I always watched the IPL. It has been a dream to be here. I have done a lot of work for that and I am grateful to play in this tournament,” said the Punjab Kings man in an interview with Cricketnext.
The 25-year-old Smith, who has played five ODIs and 10 T20Is for the West Indies, was man of the match in his first game after smashing 25 not out off just eight balls to help the Kings chase down 205 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He had a poor outing with the ball conceding 52 off his four overs.
“It’s a good feeling. I was happy that I contributed to that first win for my team. Personally, I have a lot of stuff to work on in terms of my bowling as I consider myself as a bowling all-rounder. The sole purpose of everyone in the team was to win the first game and we did that,” he said.
Smith has taken two wickets and scored 37 runs in three matches so far for the Kings who have two wins and one loss.
