The Indian Premier League (IPL) auction is scheduled to take place on December 18 in Jaipur, where 346 shortlisted cricketers will go under the hammer. And as the day is approaching near, the franchises are busy forming their wishlists.
The Preity Zinta co-owned Kings XI Punjab have already revealed the list of 11 players they are eyeing.
The KXIP team has 15 slots available for IPL 2019 which include four overseas players.
In Punjab’s wishlist, Brendon McCullum is obviously one of the big names – considering the Kiwi batsman remains to be one of the most dangerous batsmen in the shortest format despite having retired from international cricket.
It’s surprising to see Axar Patel’s name in the list as he is one of the players released by KXIP ahead of the auction. The franchise is also eyeing Indian wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who is expected to be fully fit ahead of the next IPL season.
Punjab have also named Shimron Hetmyer – the big-hitting West Indies batsman – who impressed the cricket fraternity with his lusty blows during the India tour.
Left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat, who has been released by Rajasthan Royals after being bought for a whopping Rs 11.5 crore in the previous auction, is also on KXIP’s list.
Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dubey has been making the right noises for quite some time now and while Preity Zinta would be eyeing him, one shouldn’t be surprised if the auction witnesses a bidding war when his name is announced.
KXIP will enter the IPL 2019 auction with a heavy purse of 36.20 crores.
11 players KXIP would target in the IPL 2019 auction:
Brendon McCullum, Wriddhiman Saha, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Jaydev Unadkat, Anmolpreet Singh, Tanmay Mishra, Harsh Tyagi, Kuldeep Sen, Diwesh Pathania.
Players retained by KXIP:
KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair, David Miller, Ravichandran Ashwin.
