Pant set to trigger bidding war

IPL AUCTIONS | Rahul, Iyer also hot property; Arshdeep Singh in auction pool

- NEW DELHI

With stars like Rishabh Pant and K L Rahul up for grabs, many IPL team owners will be rubbing their hands in glad anticipation at the upcoming players' auction which promises to create all-time record deals given the available Indian talent in the pool.

Aside from Pant and Rahul, there will be Shreyas Iyer, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami also in the auction pool.

All of them can trigger bidding wars but let there be no confusion that Pant will be the cynosure of all eyes at the two-day event supposed to be held in the third week of December.

The Rs 75 crore retention cap on international players coupled with Right To Match cards will certainly make it an intriguing auction as some teams, which have exhausted their retention quotas, will now have to recruit at least 15 more players for a lesser sum.

But a few others like Punjab Kings (Rs 110.5 crore) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Rs 83 crore) will be making some insane bids.

Never before in an auction has one witnessed three IPL captains back in the pool -- Pant of Delhi Capitals, defending champions KKR's Iyer and Lucknow Super Giants' KL Rahul.