Australia seamer Pat Cummins recently bagged a massive deal in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bought him for a whopping Rs 15.5 crore at the auction held in Kolkata last week. Cummins, 26, is the No.1 bowler in Tests and the KKR management believes he will carry his red-ball reputation into the T20 tournament.

Australia head coach Justin Langer feels the bowler will be little affected by the burden of the huge price tag and expects him to deliver the best that has made him a leading fast bowler in contemporary cricket. Cummins recently took eight wickets in a two-Test series against Pakistan and bagged three against New Zealand in the latest match in Perth.

Even a billion dollars won’t change Pat Cummins: Justin Langer

“You could pay him (Cummins) a $100 million, you could pay him a $1 billion, it’s not going to change him,” Langer was quoted as saying on Wednesday, ahead of the second Australia-New Zealand Test starting Boxing Day, India.com reported. “They’re the sort of people you want in your team. You could pay him a billion dollars a day and it’s not going to change him. He just loves playing cricket, he’s an outstanding young bloke…it’s not going to affect him.”

After he claimed the fourth costliest deal in the history of the IPL and becoming the most expensive foreign player ever, Cummins said in an interview to Sydney Morning Herald that his girlfriend Becky Boston wanted to buy more toys for their dog with his fat paycheque.

While Cummins has 32 wickets from 25 T20Is since he made his debut in the format in 2011, he has taken 92 wickets in 77 T20s at an average of 24.46. Besides Cummins, other Australian cricketers like Glenn Maxwell (Rs 10.75 crore), Nathan Coulter-Nile (Rs 8 crore), Marcus Stoinis (Rs 4.8 crore), Aaron Finch (Rs 4.4 crore) and Kane Richardson (Rs 4 crore) have also secured lucrative deals in this year’s IPL auction.

Langer is optimistic that the Australian cricketers’ stint in the IPL will help them hone their skills ahead of the two World Cups in the same format in 2020 and 2021. Recently, Australia have shown an improved performance in the shortest format by beating teams like India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.