All 10 franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) announced their list of retained and released players on the deadline day (November 15).
While many obvious choices were retained by the teams, some prominent names also feature in the released players’ list, including New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, Indian opener Mayank Agarwal, West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran and veteran Caribbean all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.
Notably, the mini-auction regarding the upcoming season of the cash-rich league is scheduled to take place in Kochi on December 23.
Ahead of the bidding process, many experts have started giving their opinions with respect to key players who will be on the radar of every franchise. Concerning the same, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has named a player who will be the ‘hottest property’ in the auctions.
Manjrekar reckoned that England’s superstar Ben Stokes would trigger a bidding war amongst franchises in the forthcoming auction as he is a match-winner. Stokes recently guided the English side to their second T20 World Cup title after helping them to chase down the target of 138 against Pakistan in the recently-concluded final.
“Ben Stokes, straight away. No. 1 (hottest property). He is a match-winner. Suppose you make it to the playoffs, the big stage. These are the people who come to the party,” said Manjrekar while speaking on Star Sports’ ‘IPL – Special Retention Show’.”
The Mumbaikar also shared his views on Agarwal’s release from Punjab Kings (PBKS).
“The thing about Mayank Agarwal, too much of a nice guy, and this game is not for nice guys. I mean, he had a phenomenal couple of seasons at the top of the order with KL Rahul. He actually out-batted KL Rahul at the top position, became the captain, and ideally, you would want one more year for a guy to prove himself. So, I feel sorry for him, but he will be a very, very attractive proposition for teams looking for an opener because this is the guy who will get you big scores at a strike rate of 150 160 and is good against both spin and pace,” added Manjrekar.
