Kumar Sangakkara
Kumar Sangakkara. Image-Getty.

Rajasthan Royals’ newly appointed Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara explains why the franchise was keen to buy Chris Morris in the IPL 2021 Auction despite paying an exorbitant amount for the South African.

On Thursday, Chris Morris, who set his base price at Rs. 75 Lakhs, became the costliest player ever in the IPL auction when the inaugural champions acquired his services for a whopping sum of Rs. 16.25 crores.

Kumar Sangakkara after the auction has said that he is happy to have an all-rounder of high calibre and experience such as Morris for the IPL 2021. The former Sri Lankan skipper lavished praise on the South African for his multi-dimension skillset. Apart from his late-order hitting, Morris was brilliant with the ball last season for RCB in the powerplay as well as in the death – something which attracted the Royals to go high for the 33-year-old Protea all-rounder.

Chris Morris
Chris Morris. Image-Twitter.

As quoted by India Today, Kumar Sangakkara said, “We’re also glad to get Chris Morris with us simply for what he brings to the side, both with the bat and ball. With the ball especially, his numbers across the IPLs are really good and his ability to finish games with the bat down the order is useful.”

“Yes the price was on the higher side, but we’re looking for a very specific role with Chris and really happy to have someone like him in our squad,” he added.

We were looking at Shivam Dube for that middle-order spot: Kumar Sangakkara

Shivam Dube, who was also released by RCB, found a new home in the Jaipur-based franchise; the all-rounder drew a hefty amount of Rs 4.4 cr. Kumar Sangakkara reveals that they wanted the 27-year-old all-rounder as an Indian middle-order batsman who can bowl.

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Shivam Dube (Image Credits: Twitter)

The Royals, who finished at the bottom last season, also roped in the likes of Mustafizur Rahman, Liam Livingstone, Akash Singh, KC Cariappa, Chetan Sakariya, and Kuldip Yadav to add the exuberance of youth to the Sanju Samson-led outfit.

“It was an exciting auction. From our point of view, we were targeting certain players and we’re happy to get our targets. We were looking at Shivam Dube for that middle-order spot in our batting line-up and finally got him.

“We’re excited to have picked up some talented Indian youngsters, all of whom add different dimensions to our squad. As a team, we’re delighted with the targets we were able to get and looking forward to working with the squad during the IPL now,” the 43-year-old Sri Lankan added.

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