Young. Exciting. Raw. And that pumped up celebration with the nerves around his neck just waiting to explode! GERALD COETZEE, welcome to the Blue and Gold. At 2.17pm IST, Mumbai Indians had their first buy of the IPL 2024 Auction, and it was the South African pacer, the up and coming 22-year-old.

Here’s how the action transpired: At a base price of 2 crore INR, it was CSK who opened the bid. MI jumped right in. The tug of war went on until 3.40cr, before Lucknow Super Giants jumped in, took his price up to 4.8cr INR, and with the final paddle raise, at 5cr INR, Gerald Coetzee, was ours.

Now imagine this, a 150kph speedster at the Wankhede. With the entire Paltan screaming. On a pacy pitch that has true bounce. Oh, he’s going to love it. We are going to love it!

Here’s what Ravichandran Ashwin said about him a few days ago on his Youtube Channel, “Gerald Coetzee is a very MI kind of player.” Yep, he is now.

Welcome to the city of dreams, Gerald Coetzee! Cannot wait to see you run in ..