South African left-arm medium-pacer Nandre Burger could not have chosen a better day to prove his worth. The 28-year-old picked up three wickets (3/30) to help the Proteas bowl India out for a modest 211 in the second One-Day International (ODI) at Gqeberha on Tuesday. Burger was bought by Rajasthan Royals for his base price of Rs 50 lakh in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Dubai almost along the same time.
Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson, who watched Burger in action in the ongoing ODI series, could have played a key role in Royals picking up Burger. In fact Royals bought him only towards the fag end of the auction after his impactful spell.
The bowling all-rounder made his T20I debut in the third and final match of the series last week. He got his maiden ODI cap in the series opener against India in Johannesburg on Sunday.
Burger will team up with another left-arm pacer - Kiwi great Trent Boult - for Royals in IPL 2024.