IPL 2024 Auction: 3 Players who returned to their former franchises

Many cricketers received a windfall of cash during the IPL 2024 auction. 72 players found homes in their former or new franchises, out of 77 available spaces. 333 players went under the hammer. Pat Cummins signed a deal for INR 20.50 crore, and Mitchell Starc for INR 24.75 crore, making them the two most expensive players not only in this auction but in IPL history.

However, there were also some pretty wholesome stories, as many players had their homecoming. Players returned to a franchise, they were previously part of and some of them played a huge role in the team’s success during that time.

Here are the three players who returned to their former franchise in the IPL 2024 auction:

1. Shreyas Gopal (Mumbai Indians)

Shreyas Gopal was bought by the MI franchise for his base price of INR 20 lakh. With this, the five-time champions have a very good wrist-spinner as backup to the more experienced Piyush Chawla. Gopal had decent success for MI when picked in 2014 with six wickets in four games in that season. However, Gopal went sideways with MI trusting the more experienced Harbhajan Singh, Krunal Pandya, and Karn Sharma.

Gopal then moved to Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2018 for whom he picked a hat-trick as well. After that, he had a tough time in IPL for four seasons (two with the Royals and two with Sunrisers Hyderabad). But now a more experienced and skilled Gopal will return to the MI team, and he will likely get more than a few opportunities given the thin choice of spinners the franchise has.