IPL 11: Kolkata Knight Riders sign Tom Curran as Mitchell Starc replacement

NEW DELHI: Kolkata Knight Riders have signed England allrounder Tom Curran as the replacement for Mitchell Starc in their squad for the 11th season of the IPL starting April 7.
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Curran, 23, has been purchased by the two-time IPL winners for his base price of 1 crore having been overlooked during the player auction in January. This will be his first stint with an IPL franchise.
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"I'm thrilled and excited to be joining Kolkata Knight Riders for the IPL," Curran was quoted by the Surrey website. "I know from chatting to other players I can learn a lot from being in that environment, skills that I hope will benefit Surrey and my chances of representing England again this year and if selected, for next year's World Cup."

In 51 career T20s, Curran has taken 53 wickets with an economy of 8.25 and scored 362 runs at a strike-rate of 128.36. He has enjoyed the most success for his county Surrey, taking 43 wickets while conceding runs at 8.19 over with best figures of 4/35. Of his 362 career T20 runs, 354 have come as a Surrey player with one half-century.
Curran - son of the late Zimbabwe allrounder Kevin - made his international debuts in all three formats for England in 2017, and has so far featured in eight ODIs, six T20Is and two Tests. In January, he was Man of the Match for taking 5/35 in an ODI against Australia.
Starc was ruled out of the IPL on account of a “tibial bone stress fracture in his right leg”, thus making it the third consecutive season he has not turned out in the competition. In 2016 he was injured and last season he opted out to manage his workload during a busy year. In January, KKR had purchased Starc for Rs 9.40 crore from a base price of Rs 2 crore.
KKR are also waiting on updates on another Australian, the explosive batsman Chris Lynn, as well as the West Indian pair of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.