The retentions for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier Season (IPL) has been announced and the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) franchise have just retained Axar Patel.
There was speculation that David Miller, Sandeep Sharma may also be retained along with Axar Patel, but Punjab followed through with the expected plan and retained their strike bowler.
Now that KXIP has retained just 1 Indian player, they can use Right To Match (RTM) cards on 2 Indian and 2 foreign players. It will be interesting to see which Punjab player gets retained by RTM cards as there are a number of contenders.
However, if reports are to be believed, KXIP owner Preity Zinta has shown a keen interest in Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal. He has been in tremendous form lately. Playing across different leagues like the Natwest T20 Blast, Bangladesh Premier League and the Pakistan Super League, the 28-year-old has slammed 433 runs in 16 innings.
Tamim last played in the IPL during 2012 and 2013 season. The star batsman from Bangladesh was previously a part of the now-defunct Pune Warriors India for two years.
According to bdcrictime, in the upcoming auctions, a total of 8 Bangladeshi players are expected to go under the hammer. The list includes the likes of Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah Riyad, Abul Hasan Raju, Liton Kumar Das, etc.
Also, Shakib Al Hasan is expected to have a huge demand amongst franchises, since Kolkata Knight Riders did not retain him for the 11th edition of IPL and will now play for some other team.
