Aakash Chopra On Punjab Kings Auction Strategy: Former Indian cricketer turned broadcaster Aakash Chopra questions whether the Punjab Kings have even a single player in their current squad who is worth Rs. 18 crores. So by extension, will this team retain any players before the IPL 2025 mega auction?
Before the auction for the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League, BCI has released the rules of retention. A team can retain RTM (Right to Match) up to six players, but only five of them can be capped. The first player to be retained would be worth at least 18 crores. The second retention would be worth 14 crores, while the third would be for 11 crores.
Teams can also go for a fourth or fifth retention worth 18 and 14 crores each. While any uncapped players would be worth only 4 crores.
It is expected that most teams will retain three capped players and use their other two slots for the RTM. While the top slots will be used by most teams for their captain, they can also be used for their most valuable player.
But for the Punjab Kings, a team that has been suffering from mediocrity for a decade now, who will be their No. 1 retention? Captain Shikhar Dhawan has retired from the game, while backup captain Jitesh Sharma is neither valuable enough nor in good enough form.
A man who has also captained the team in the past few years is English all-rounder Sam Curran. He was also bought for Rs. 18.5 crores in the 2023 auction. But it is highly unlikely that he will be retained for that price too.
Aakash Chopra On Punjab Kings Auction Strategy
This is the same question that Aakash Chopra asked in a new video on his YouTube channel. Addressing the Punjab Kings auction strategy, the former Indian batter mentioned how the team has hired a new head coach in Ricky Ponting but questioned whether they have a player worth retaining for 18 crores.
“New coach, new thinking, new approach. If they go with that, will they want to retain anyone? Do they have anyone worth 18 crores? They have uncapped players, but does Punjab have any capped players worthy of 18 crores?” he pondered.
Aakash then went on to suggest that Ponting, being an Australian coach, would likely get rid of all the English talent in the team. It must be noted that there might be a little too many Englishmen in PBKS, with four players in the squad.
“They spent a lot of money on Sam Curran and retained him, but Trevor Bayliss was there at that time. They had kept many English players. Now that Ricky Ponting has come, all English players will be made to stand next to the door. I feel Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Jonny Bairstow, and Chris Woakes will all go,” said Chopra.
Finally, Aakash reckoned that even the team’s most high-profile and consistent player, Arshdeep Singh, might not be worth the lofty price tag, saying,
“I want to retain Arshdeep, but I won’t retain him for 18 crores. I will let him go, as I have the Right to Match card in any case. I will use it later, however much he might be sold for. I don’t think any Indian fast bowler will go for 18 crores at the mega auction unless he is Jasprit Bumrah, who won’t come to the auction.”
However, Akash Chopra did recommend that the Punjab Kings should retain a couple of their uncapped players, namely Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, or maybe even Ashutosh Sharma.
“I will try to retain Shashank. He is an uncapped Indian. You will get him for four crores. I can think about Prabhsimran Singh. He is also an uncapped Indian whom you will get for four crores. If I think about Ashutosh, you can retain only two uncapped players,” he said.
While the date for the IPL 2025 auction has not been announced yet, it is expected that the teams will have to submit their retention lists sometime in the next two months.
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