The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 mentor of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Gautam Gambhir, has defended the team's decision to pay a record ₹24.75 crore to acquire Mitchell Starc, an Australian fast bowler. The former cricket player stressed that Starc will take on the role of the team's main captain in the bowling attack and called the left-arm bowler an X-factor.

3 things you need to know 

• Mitchell Starc became the most expensive player in the history of the IPL after KKR bought him for ₹24.75 crore
• Pat Cummins is the second most expensive player in IPL history 
• This year Gautam Gambhir returned to KKR as their new mentor 

Also read: Daryl Mitchell reacts after big paycheck moment

What did Gautam Gambhir say about Mitchell Starc?

Starc created history by being the most expensive player ever purchased at the IPL auction, fetching a whopping ₹24.75 crore from KKR. This beat the previous record held by his captain for both Tests and ODIs, Pat Cummins, who was signed by SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) for ₹20.50 crore. Gautam Gambhir spoke to Jio Cinema while sharing his thoughts on the acquisition of the Australian bowler. He said: 

"He (Starc) is an X-factor, there is no doubt about that. Someone who can bowl with the new ball, bowl in the death overs and more importantly, someone who can lead the attack. He is going to be of massive help to our two domestic bowlers because both of them are very talented and you need someone to help them out in the middle and Starc covers those bases," he said.

"It is not only about his bowling but also about leading the attack and helping all guys around him. So, somebody will have to pay for it," the 42-year-old went on to add.

Gambhir on KKR’s bowling line-up ahead of the IPL 2024

After the IPL 2024 auction, Gambhir stated his happiness with the strong bowling squad that Kolkata had put up. He added: 

"We have a lot of depth in our bowling line-up. We always wanted to have a stronger bowling attack and now we have the options with Mujeeb (Ur Rahman), Gus (Atkinson), Sunil (Narine), Varun (Chakravarthy), and Mitchell Starc along with two Indian seamers (Harshit Rana and Suyash Sharma) and Chetan Sakariya," 

"Now, we have enough options where we can play different combinations looking at the venue as well. For me, it has always been about having a strong bowling line-up compared to a very strong batting line-up," 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Introducing, our 𝐊𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IPL2024?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IPL2024</a>! 💪 <a href="https://t.co/vaKlfgBqRQ">pic.twitter.com/vaKlfgBqRQ</a></p>&mdash; KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) <a href="https://twitter.com/KKRiders/status/1737156869666308520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS SQUAD

Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer (c), Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain.

• Total Spending - ₹29,45,00,000 
• Funds left:  ₹1,35,00,000