The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction isn’t far away and franchises will be announcing the list of their retained players on November 30. After a few reports suggested that KL Rahul doesn’t want to remain with Punjab Kings (PBKS), it has now been learned that the franchise is likely to go into the bidding war with a full purse balance of INR 90 crore.
Be it a mega auction of mini, Punjab Kings is one franchise that has always been among the busiest. The Preity Zinta co-owned side hasn’t found success in the competition despite virtually changing and chopping their squads almost every season. In fact, they had last finished in the top four back in the IPL 2014 campaign.
Though there’s no denying that KL Rahul would’ve been the franchise’s No. 1 pick on the retention list, the Karnataka lad doesn’t seem to be willing to continue with the franchise considering the lack of success. Barring Rahul, there aren’t many players who have managed to impress for Punjab Kings. While one may argue the case of Mayank Agarwal, the counter-argument could be the price of INR 16 crore that PBKS would have to shell if they retain him.
Thus, PBKS are looking at uncapped players like Ravi Bishnoi and Arshdeep Singh as possible retentions but haven’t made their mind yet. Since the franchise would only need to shell out INR 4 crore if they retain an uncapped player, one of Arshdeep and Bishnoi could be persisted with.
When it comes to KL Rahul, the India T20I vice-captain is reportedly top of the wishlist of the two new franchises – Ahmedabad and Lucknow. These franchises have the right to sign players before the IPL 2022 mega auction begins. Both the franchises can sign three players each from the auction pool, the prices for whom have been pre-decided.
If Rahul does go on to leave PBKS, as has been suggested, there’s no doubt that he will be the first pick of those available. Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, Mayank Agarwal, etc. are some of the players who are likely to be among priority picks.
