Former Australian fast Jason Gillespie has shared his opinion on Australian skipper Pat Cummins earning Rs 20.5 crore in the IPL 2024 auction and becoming the second-highest IPL player ever in the league. The 30-year-old was signed by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2024 season in the bidding war between four teams.
Pat Cummins, who led Australia to the World Cup triumph last month, was picked by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for 20.5 crore at the IPL Auction on Tuesday evening after a four-way battle between the Chennai Super Kings, the Royal Challengers Bangalore, and the Mumbai Indians.
On SEN Sportsday, Jason Gillespie praised Pat Cummins as a quality bowler and leader, but questioned his impact on the squad in the T20 format, believing that he is more of a test bowler than a T20 bowler.
“Pat’s obviously a quality bowler and a quality leader, we’ve seen that, I just don’t think T20 is his best format. I think he’s a Test bowler, personally. I think Test cricket is his absolute bread and butter. He’s a good T20 bowler, make no mistake. But that’s massive overs for me.”
The Australian Test and ODI captain’s most recent T20 outing occurred at the 2022 T20 World Cup. In his last two seasons with Kolkata, the right-arm pacer failed to live up to expectations, picking up just 16 wickets at 28.06 in 12 matches with an economy rate of 9.62 before skipping last year’s IPL to focus on international obligations.
I Feel Like I Haven’t Played My Best T20 Cricket – Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins admitted during the ODI World Cup 2023 that he hasn’t played much T20 cricket in recent times and that he hasn’t been at his best in the shorter format of the game.
“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,” Jason Gillespie said.
Pat Cummins is undoubtedly one of the best bowlers in the world in Test Cricket. His bowling style, however, is not suited to the shortest format, resulting in only a few good outings for the team. He has improved his ODI death bowling, but it remains to be seen whether he can do the same in the T20 format. The Australian skipper is gearing up to lead Australia in the Boxing Day test against Pakistan starting on December 26.
