Also on our list of ten: captain fantastic Shreyas Iyer, Arshdeep boss-both-ends-of-the-innings Singh, and one Fraser-McGurk who offers a glimpse into the heady future of T20 batting
Nagraj Gollapudi21-Nov-202412:15
Pant? Rahul? Which Indian player will get the big bucks at the auction?
Rishabh Pant
Set 2: Marquee. Base price: INR 2 crore (USD ($ 237,000 approx.)On the morning of deadline day, Delhi Capitals were unable to close negotiations with their captain Rishabh Pant, who opted to head to the auction instead. Fans and experts alike believe he could be one of the most expensive players at this auction, crossing the INR 20-crore mark.Related
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Why is Pant that valuable? Measured purely in terms of his T20 numbers, Pant doesn’t stand out. Counted among the most dangerous batters in Test cricket already, Pant, who is 27, has won just eight Player-of-the-Match awards in his 111-match IPL career which started in 2016.But Pant has always made us expect something special or freakish, that’s his X-factor. Also, alongside DC, several franchises – Royal Challengers Bangalore, Punjab Kings, Lucknow Super Giants, Kolkata Knight Riders – are on the lookout for a captain. Pant doubles up as a wicketkeeper-batter, too, a skillset many teams have a vacancy for. DC have the option of buying him back via the right-to-match card (RTM). A top India player, a leadership option, a growing brand, and, importantly, a fan favourite – there is a lot that can drive Pant’s bids to escalate quickly.Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer are captaincy options for teams•BCCIShreyas IyerSet 1: Marquee. Base price: INR 2 crore ($ 237,000 approx.)Like Pant, Shreyas Iyer is a frontrunner to fill the captaincy role available at several franchises including KKR, whom he led to the IPL title last season. Shreyas was bought by KKR at the 2022 mega auction, the franchise staving off rival bids from four others (RCB, DC, LSG, GT) to secure his services for INR 12.25 crore. They appointed him captain straightaway. After missing the 2023 season with a back injury, Shreyas took charge last season and worked successfully with the leadership group led by current India coach Gautam Gambhir.While KKR were open to retaining him, Shreyas opted to head to auction; their talks failed over money. Having retained six players, KKR don’t have a RTM to buy Shreyas back. They will still keep the option of buying him back with a modest purse (INR 51 crore) open, but Shreyas the captain is also an attractive option for PBKS – who have the strongest purse going into the auction (INR 110.5 crore) – as well as DC (purse: INR 55 crore) and LSG (purse: INR 69 crore).Shreyas the batter is also a bankable option in the middle overs, and there are teams who will eye him for that role too.Mitchell StarcSet 1: Marquee. Base price: INR 2 crore ($ 237,000 approx.)Last time around, the multiple-World-Cup winner breezed past the record bid of INR 20.50 crore that SRH had minutes earlier made for Pat Cummins, making him momentarily the most expensive player bought at any IPL auction. KKR had broken the bank for Starc, spending 80% of their purse (INR 24.75 crore out of 32.7) on him.Quiet during the league phase, Starc burst through SRH in the two matches that mattered: Qualifier 1 and the final. On both occasions, Starc hurt their top order with fiery spells of fast bowling which included the early wickets of the red-hot form players Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma. Starc was the Player of the Match in both games.With his varied skills, Starc is equally impactful in the powerplay and death overs, the crucial phases where matches are predominantly won and lost in T20s. After the 2024 IPL final, Starc, who will be 35 next January, said that he would be focusing on franchise cricket in the last leg of his career – this means whoever signs him could see him as a three-year player.With his experience, teams will also look at Starc as a bowling leader and a mentor. No surprises then, if Starc ends up adding another million or two to his wallet.KL Rahul has had six 500-plus years in the IPL•BCCIKL RahulSet 2: Marquee. Base price: INR 2 crore ($ 237,000 approx.)Since IPL 2018, KL Rahul has scored 500-plus runs in six seasons. The one time he didn’t, in 2023, he had missed the second half of LSG’s campaign having injured his quadricep. In comparison, Virat Kohli and David Warner, bonafide IPL legends, have had seven 500-plus aggregates though they started much earlier than Rahul. Despite the constant chatter around the manner of his batting and strike rate specifically, Rahul has stuck to his strengths and shown enough signs of improvement during his three-season stint at LSG.He opted to leave LSG, who are highly unlikely to trigger the RTM option for him. Rahul has dropped hints that he would be happy heading to RCB, where his IPL journey started in 2013. RCB are on the lookout for a captain and Rahul could be seen as a long-term leadership option. RCB also need a keeper-batter, a position Dinesh Karthik performed from 2022-24 before retiring last year.There are also several other teams that need an experienced top-order Indian batter-cum-wicketkeeper, which means Rahul could be in for a significant bid.Jos ButtlerSet 1: Marquee. Base price: INR 2 crore ($ 237,000 approx.)Since the 2022 IPL season, among top-order batters, Jos Buttler is the fourth-highest run-maker with a strike rate of nearly 145. In the same period, Buttler is also the fourth-highest six-hitter (71). Buttler can both create pressure with the bat and release pressure by hitting the ball into areas not many others can, especially thanks to his dextrous wrist work.Buttler, who is 34, has had recent struggles with his calf but showed his batting powers have not diminished with a brutal 83 in his second T20I on return for England against West Indies, playing at No. 3. At Rajasthan Royals, where he played since 2018, Buttler played mainly as an opener.A T20-World Cup-winning captain, Buttler offers teams the leadership option too.Arshdeep SinghSet 1: Marquee. Base price: INR 2 crore (US $ 237,000 approx.)From IPL 2022 to 2024, only Bhuvneshwar Kumar (64) and T Natarajan (61) delivered more yorkers than Arshdeep (50) in the death overs. The yorker is a key weapon for a fast bowler in the final overs, with batters looking to hit boundaries every single delivery. Despite such pressure, Arshdeep has an economy rate of 5.76 for his yorkers – that is only slightly higher than Jasprit Bumrah’s 5.38 for his 49 yorkers.In the death overs in these seasons, Arshdeep has 28 wickets, which is the second-most after Harshal Patel (50). Arshdeep has also been effective in the powerplay, where his 24 wickets are the fourth-most since IPL 2022.On top of this ability to bowl at the start and the close of an innings, Arshdeep has proven himself to be a matchwinner at the international level – think back to the recent T20I series in South Africa.Arshdeep Singh has been impressive in the death overs•BCCILiam LivingstoneSet 2: Marquee. Base price: INR 2 crore (US $ 237,000 approx.)Even in the noisy world of T20, some bats make a distinct noise. One of them belongs to England’s batting allrounder Liam Livingstone, who can bludgeon the ball hard and far. And usually, he will flex his muscle in the second half of the innings: in the last three IPL seasons, Livingstone’s strike rate of 191.66 (575 runs in 21 innings) is behind only India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav (193.85, with 789 runs in 26 innings). Third on this list is Heinrich Klaasen at 182.40 (757 runs in 24 innings).Livingstone also has the unique ability to switch between wrist- and fingerspin in the same over: he can bowl legbreaks or dart in sliders based on the match-up. Because of those factors, he earned INR 11.5 crore at the 2022 mega auction despite his bid coming on the second day. In 2025, it will be the first time Livingstone will be a part of the marquee set at an IPL auction. A power-hitting allrounder is always a popular buy in the IPL, and with PBKS having a RTM option and a strong purse, Livingstone’s price could once again escalate quickly.Ishan KishanSet 5: Wicketkeeper (1). Base price: INR 2 crore (US $ 237,000 approx.)At the previous mega auction, in 2022, India’s wicketkeeper-batter Kishan was the most expensive buy with Mumbai Indians paying INR 15.25 crore ($2.033 million approx.) for him. Four teams were keen on him (skillset: left-hand opening batter-cum-wicketkeeper). PBKS got things started, followed by GT, and eventually MI sealed it after a stiff bidding contest with SRH.Kishan’s returns that season were poor, but in the last two years he has shown vast improvement – especially in the powerplay. In 2023, when MI made the playoffs, Kishan struck at a strike rate of nearly 145 (scoring 333 runs in 15 innings). In 2024, where MI finished bottom of the table, Kishan’s strike rate in the powerplay was over 161 (239 runs in 13 innings). Across the last two IPL seasons, Kishan is the third-highest run-maker in the powerplay (572 runs in 28 innings), and his strike rate of 151.32 is ninth highest.A left-hand opening batter is something several teams would desire. Add wicketkeeping to that, and the fact that he has age on his side (Kishan is 26), and you know you could have another bidding war coming up.Phil SaltSet 5: Wicketkeeper (1). Base price: INR 2 crore ($ 237,000 approx.)Sunil Narine was the undisputed MVP last season, but the KKR great would acknowledge much of his batting success was owed to his opening partner Phil Salt, who displayed some blistering stroke play.Since 2022, only Travis Head has a higher strike rate than Salt in the first six overs in T20s (min. 1000 runs), although Head has played far fewer matches. In 131 innings, Salt has scored 2450 runs at a strike rate of 163.77.Salt’s strength is dealing in boundaries, virtually every ball. In IPL 2024, Salt’s balls-per-boundary count was 2.61 (in 15 innings). Only Jake Fraser-McGurk, the young Australian who opened for DC, had a better count at 2.04, though he batted in just nine innings. Salt was also second in the balls-per-six count at 8.77, behind Fraser-McGurk’s phenomenal 5.05.Salt has shown his electric starts can contribute to a title-winning run. Moreover, he is now a regular wicketkeeper for England.Jake Fraser-McGurk sparkled in his first IPL season in 2024•Getty ImagesJake Fraser-McGurkSet 3: Batter (1). Base price: INR 2 crore (US $ 237,000 approx.)This might seem like an outrageous pick. But outrageous is also the apt word for Fraser-McGurk’s batting in IPL 2024, his maiden season. With a baseball batter’s stance, Fraser-McGurk, 22, blasted bowlers of all kinds and provided powerful starts to DC in the powerplay. Owner of the fastest century in List A cricket – which he reached in 29 balls, two fewer than AB de Villiers against West Indies – Fraser-McGurk announced himself in the IPL by smashing 15-ball half-centuries twice.One came against MI, on a sweltering day in Delhi, when he went on to score 84 off 27. This included hitting Jasprit Bumrah for a six first ball, followed by a four and then another four off the final delivery of that over, making it the most expensive by Bumrah (18 runs).He remains a batter still being moulded, but Fraser-McGurk has already showcased, in his small sample size, the fast evolution of T20 batting – especially T20 powerplay batting. Dating back to IPL 2022, Fraser-McGurk has the best balls-per-boundary (2.04) and best balls-per-six (5.95) count in the first six overs. His strike rate of 250.94 is the highest for any batter to have played two or more overs in the powerplay last season.He struggled for form in white-ball cricket after the IPL, but recently showed he still has what it takes by carting Shaheen Afridi – again, showing the guts to take on the best of the best – for 18 runs in an over in a T20I.With franchises on the lookout for batters who can provide electric starts, Fraser-McGurk has the potential to earn some good money.