Mukesh Kumar IPL 2023 auction price: Did Mukesh Kumar play IPL before maiden T20I call-up for Sri Lanka T20Is?

On Tuesday, BCCI announced their squads for the T20I and ODI series against Sri Lanka, and it is safe to say that some tough decisions have been taken by the selectors, and it will be interesting to see how the Indian team will approach the T20 format of the game.

Hardik Pandya has been named the captain of the T20I side, with Suryakumar Kumar being named his deputy. There is no place for KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Rishabh Pant, etc. The pace department looks quite raw, where Shivam Mavi and Mukesh Kumar have received their maiden international call-ups.

It will be interesting to see the pace-bowling combination of the team in the series as it looks quite inexperienced on paper with Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh being the only pacers from the T20 World Cup squad. In ODIs, BCCI have decided to drop veteran opener, Shikhar Dhawan.

Mukesh Kumar IPL 2023 auction price

The last few days must have been incredible for the Bengal pacer Mukesh Kumar. Mukesh has never played in the IPL before, but he hit a jackpot in the auction this time around. He kept his base price at just INR 20 Lacs, where Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings got engaged in the battle to sign him.

Delhi Capitals were in for him from the start, and they only stopped after securing the services of Mukesh. They bought him for a price of INR 5.50 crores in the end. For an uncapped pacer who has not played in the tournament before, this is a huge very huge amount.

The 29-year-old pacer has been decent with the white ball, but he holds a great record in red-ball cricket. In the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he scalped 6 wickets at an economy of 7.04, whereas he scalped 9 wickets at 4.91 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. It will be a great learning curve for Mukesh to play with the pacers like Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi and Mustafizur Rahman.