Overseas Players PBKS Likely to go for Captaincy: As has been the case with almost every auction over the past decade, Punjab Kings (PBKS) will have the largest purse once again heading into the IPL 2025 mega auction, which is slated for November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ahead of the mega auction, PBKS have retained only two players: Shashank Singh for INR 5.5 crore and Prabhsimran Singh for INR 4 crore.
They had a forgettable IPL 2024 season: PBKS finished 9th in the 10-team tournament and had three different men leading them. Shikhar Dhawan started the season as their skipper, but after five games he was sidelined due to an injury. The captaincy duties went to Sam Curran for the remaining 9 matches, out of which he missed one game, in which Jitesh Sharma led the side. Dhawan is retired, while Curran and Jitesh have not been retained by PBKS.
The IPL 2025 mega auction pool includes 574 players, out of which 208 are overseas players. There will be plenty of captaincy candidates available for the Punjab Kings in the mega auction, including a few overseas options.
Ricky Ponting is the new Punjab Kings head coach, and he is very open to having overseas skippers for his franchise. Let us see three overseas players whom PBKS can target in the mega auction as their captain.
Overseas Players PBKS Likely to Go for Captaincy in the IPL 2025 mega auction
Jos Buttler
A player who will be on target for multiple teams is Jos Buttler, who has been released by Rajasthan Royals. The 34-year-old England captain is one of the most devastating T20 openers in the world and wins several games every season on his own.
He has a vast IPL experience, having been a regular member of the playing XI, initially of Mumbai Indians and then Rajasthan Royals, since 2016. He has featured in 107 IPL matches so far, scoring 3582 runs at an average of 38 and strike rate of 147, hammering 7 centuries and 19 fifties in the process.
Buttler captained England to the T20 World Cup 2022 trophy in Australia. Being a keeper, he is always in the game, and that helps him make quick decisions. PBKS can target Buttler for the role of keeper-opener and their new skipper.
David Warner
Punjab’s new head coach Ricky Ponting might be keen on onboarding his compatriot David Warner into the PBKS setup and putting him at the helm of the team.
Make no mistake, Warner is a proven skipper in the IPL, having led Sunrisers Hyderabad for several years and leading them to their only IPL trophy in 2016.
Warner has been released by Delhi Capitals and will be available in the mega auction. He is the leading run scorer in the IPL among overseas batsmen with 6565 runs in 184 games. The left-hander has struck 4 hundreds and 62 fifties in the IPL. He has captained DC and SRH in 83 IPL matches, winning 40 of those outright.
Warner is retired from international cricket. Hence, he will be fit, fresh, and firing in the IPL 2025 season and wouldn’t be bogged down by the extra responsibility of leading a side again.
Sam Curran
Although PBKS have released Sam Curran, there is a good chance that they might get him back, either by buying him or using the RTM option. A talented seam-bowling all-rounder who bats in the middle order, PBKS had spent INR 18.5 crore on Curran in the IPL 2023 auction, making him the most expensive player in IPL history at that point.
He has done well in the last two seasons in the IPL for PBKS. He’s scored 546 runs and picked up 26 wickets, doing his duties as a proper all-rounder to good effect. He has led Punjab in 11 games in the last two seasons, winning five of them.
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