IPL 2021: Punjab Kings CEO elucidates why the franchise bought Jhye Richardson for INR 14 crore

Australian pace sensation Jhye Richardson received an enormous deal in the Indian Premier League (IPL) players’ auction held last month. Richardson was bought by Punjab Kings (PBKS) for a whopping INR 14 crore.

Richardson came to the limelight after his impressive show in Big Bash League (BBL). In 53 matches, the right-handed pacer has taken 69 wickets at an economy of 7.77, with 4/19 being his best.

In the recently concluded BBL 10, Richardson impressed one and all with his spectacular fast bowling. He took 29 wickets from 17 games at a brilliant strike-rate of 12.70 and ended the season as the highest wicket-taker.

After such an impressive run in the BBL, it was somehow expected that Richardson would attract high bids in IPL 2021 auction and precisely that happened as well. Now, PKBS’ CEO Satish Menon has revealed what went through the management’s thought process behind signing the Aussie pacer for a huge amount.

While speaking to WION, Menon said that Richardson was always on their target, and they are excited to have him in the outfit.

“Jhye was always on our list. He is one of the finest components with the ball in white-ball cricket. We stretched ourselves for Chris Morris but Rajasthan Royals got hold of him. Jhye’s ability to bowl at any stage of the match gives us the flexibility we were looking for. And obviously, he is a very handy player with the bat as well. We are really excited to witness Jhye in Punjab Kings jersey in IPL,” said Menon.

The Punjab team also added Dawid Malan, Riley Meredith, Fabian Allen, and Moises Henriques to their foreign contingent. Malan was, in fact, roped in by PBKS for INR 1.5 crore. When asked about getting the No.1 T20 batsman under INR 2 crore, Menon said they were surprised to get Malan in that price bracket.

“We were actually pretty surprised to get Dawid so early. Maybe the combination of other teams played a role. Sometimes when your name pops up in the auction play a role too. He is a quality player and someone who will give us the quality and solidity in the middle order, which we felt was missing. His numbers speak for himself; he has been a top player when it comes to T20 cricket for a while. We have no doubts about the quality Dawid will bring to Punjab Kings,” added Menon.