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'Why Sam Curran In IPL 2024?' - Ex-India Opener 'Extremely Surprised' For Punjab Kings' Call

image-lrlv95glSam Curran continues his PBKS stint [X.com]

Aakash Chopra said he was "extremely surprised"  to see Punjab Kings (PBKS) retain their expensive recruit, Sam Curran, ahead of the next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The former India player anticipated the franchise to release the player and try and fetch his services back at a more reasonable price. 

Curran became what was then the highest-ever bid player at an IPL auction when PBKS purchased him for a shocking sum of INR 18.50 crores before IPL 2023. The utility England allrounder, however, failed to live up to his billings and made just 235 runs and took 10 wickets.

Chopra expected PBKS to correct their mistake and release the young player back to the auction pool for IPL 2024. Instead, the perennial also-rans of the league retained him at his existing sum, creating a serious headache for themselves with a limited purse available to resurrect the squad.


Chopra On Why PBKS Shouldn't Have Retained Curran 

"I was extremely surprised. Why did you retain Sam Curran? They have parked 18.50 crore rupees in one place. I won't call him a non-performing asset but a very expensive asset for sure. He was sold for 18.50 crore rupees because there were only three all-rounders in the small auction," Chopra said on his YouTube channel."However, if you see his performances in the last IPL, the SA20 now, or the last year, he hasn't done anything special for the last 12-17 months. He just played well in the 2022 T20 World Cup and that too because the side boundaries were very big in Australia." 

The Punjab franchise would've still been okay with Curran's output with the bat as he plundered his runs in the lower middle order at a strike rate of 135.96 and smashed a half-century.

However, the medium pacer's expensive ways with the ball could've compelled them to look elsewhere as Curran conceded runs at 10.22 an over for his breakthroughs.