South Africa wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock was sold by Royal Challengers Bangalore to three-time Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians in what was the first trade before the auctions of the twelfth season, ESPNCricinfo reported on Friday.
De Kock was bought by Bangalore only in the previous auction for a hefty price of Rs 2.8 crore.
The report also stated that Mumbai have released Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman and Sri Lanka off-spinner Akila Dananjaya, who were bought for Rs 2.2 Crore and Rs 50 lakh respectively. Both players failed to make an impact for Mumbai last season.
The IPL has two windows where franchises can trade players. The first one starts at the end of the season till a month before the auctions. The second window begins after the auction and stretches before the start of the tournament.
Mumbai will be De Kock’s third franchise, having previously played for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils. It will be interesting to see how De Kock fits into Mumbai’s team plans as they already have wicketkeepers Aditya Tare and Ishan Kishan – who had a fine season – in their ranks with West Indies opener Evin Lewis as one of their overseas investements.
Additionally, with the Indian general elections scheduled in 2019, it is not certain where the tournament will be held next year. IPL moved to South Africa in 2009 while the first set of games in the 2014 edition was held in the UAE. Recently, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla had picked out UAE or South Africa being possible destinations for 2019.
