IPL 2024: Pat Cummins To Register Himself For The Upcoming IPL Auctions

Australian skipper Pat Cummins plans to feature in the upcoming IPL auction and participate in the 2024 season in order to prepare for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, which will be held in the West Indies and the USA in June 2024. The Australia captain pulled out of the 2023 season of IPL due to a hectic test schedule that included the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, the ICC World Test Championship, and the Ashes in the space of a few months.

Pat Cummins was brought in by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a sum amounting to 7.25 crore rupees in the 2022 mega auction, and he also famously fetched 15.25 crore rupees at the 2019 IPL auction to become the most expensive foreign player in IPL at that time. The two-time IPL winners proceeded to release Pat Cummins along with many other international players, who opted out of the 2023 edition of IPL.

Pat Cummins’ last T20I appearance came at the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 stage. The 2023 season primarily witnessed a lot of test and ODI action as the shortest format took a temporary backseat. Considering that the IPL will help him settle back into the shortest format after a prolonged absence, Cummins said ahead of Australia’s ODI World Cup semi-final fixture against South Africa.

“I feel like I haven’t played a heap of T20 cricket and in some ways, I feel like I haven’t played my best T20 cricket for a little while. I’m really excited, I’m probably going to go into the IPL auction for next year to try to get some games before that World Cup and push a case to not only make the side but get back to how I feel like I can bowl in T20 cricket.”

Pat Cummins Might Not Lead Australia In The Upcoming T20 World Cup

Pat Cummins was next in line to lead Australia in the T20 format after Aaron Finch’s retirement. However, the speedster was injured ahead of Australia’s latest T20 assignment in South Africa, and the captaincy role went to Mitchell Marsh, who led the team to a ruthless 3-0 whitewash against the Proteas away from home.

Doubting that he will lead the Australian side at the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, Pat Cummins said, “Hopefully playing in it. Captaining, I don’t really know. Marshy did a fantastic job in South Africa, so we’ll wait and see.”

Australia won the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 but then failed to defend it on home soil. They could not even qualify for the semi-finals after finishing third in their Super 12s group in the 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup.

Pat Cummins recently led Australia to the World Test Championship (WTC) title. Guiding the team to a record-extending sixth ODI World Cup title would be an incredible achievement for Pat Cummins. However, balancing the workload as a pacer and leading the side across two heavy formats is a wearying task.

Stating that he would still be leading the Australian side as the ODI captain after the World Cup, Cummins said, “Potentially, yeah. We’ll chat about it. We’ve been pretty open, me and Andrew and George around different times in the year you’re going to have different priorities.”

Australia have reached the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 and will face South Africa on November 16, at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Pat Cummins and company will be eyeing a spot in what could be Australia’s eighth appearance in the World Cup finals.