IPL 2022: It's great that most of the squad has been retained - KKR pacer Pat Cummins

Australian and Kolkata Knight Riders speedster Pat Cummins has said that he is looking forward to joining forces with his IPL teammates again. The 28-year-old, bought back by the franchise in the IPL mega auction in February, believes it's a good thing that the core has been kept together.

The Knight Riders retained Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer before the mega auction. At the auction, they brought back Cummins, Nitish Rana, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi and Rinku Singh, all of whom were previously part of the IPL team.

Ahead of the third Test against Pakistan, Cummins said that there will be an element of familiarity, as many of the old players have been retained. He recalled playing alongside Shreyas Iyer for Delhi in 2017 and is excited to team up again, saying as quoted by Sportstar:

"Really excited. It's been great that most of the squad has been able to (be) kept together. So, most of the players and staff know (each other) really really well. Shreyas, I played with at Delhi (Daredevils), we got on really well."

He continued:

"He seems like a very calm guy and seems in form at the moment. I'm so excited to go over there; I have some close friends I will be playing alongside, can't wait."

The New South Wales-born Cummins is amongst the few Australian players who'll miss the white ball leg of the tour against Pakistan. The others are David Warner, Josh Hazlewood, and Glenn Maxwell who is not available due to his wedding.

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Pat Cummins experiences a sharp dip in paycheque in mega auction

Meanwhile, Pat Cummins could not notch up as massive an amount he did in the 2020 IPL auction. The 28-year old fetched a bid of Rs 15.5 crore two years ago, but the Knight Riders bought him back for Rs 7.25 crore this time.

His performances have been decent as he picked up 12 wickets in 14 games in the 2020 edition. In the 2021 IPL schedule, he snared nine scalps in seven games. He also scored runs at a strike rate of 166.07.