IPL 2020 Auction: Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting's big money picks and ‘unpredictable’ happening
Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting has spoken about the next week's IPL 2020 players auction in Kolkata
FollowNew Delhi: With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 players auction set to take place in Kolkata on December 19, Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting has spoken about the “unpredictable” always happening.
Former Australian captain Ponting said the DC franchise had several discussions with regard to shopping players at the auction. Ponting had met the members of the DC management.
Also read: Here is the final list of players for IPL 2020 auction
DC will go into the auction with a purse of Rs 27.85 crore and 11 available slots, including five overseas players. As many as 332 players will go under the hammer. The highest base price is Rs 2 crore.
“We’ve had several discussions over the last few months, and have put in a lot of time and effort to make sure that we’re well prepared,” Ponting said on Saturday (December 14). “You can do all the planning in the world, but at the auction table, the unpredictable always happens.”
Also read: Sachin Tendulkar in search of Chennai man
Batting legend Ponting said the focus at the auction table would be on foreign fast bowlers including Australian quick Pat Cummins, who is currently playing in a Test against New Zealand.
“There’s going to be a lot of focus and attention on fast bowlers, overseas ones in particular. Pat Cummins (pictured) could go for big money, as could Chris Woakes. All-rounders are always interesting in my opinion. Players like Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh, Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme could all be big picks,” Ponting, who had captained Mumbai Indians (MI) in IPL, said.
He added, “Going into the auction you have to be very specific about the kind of players you need. For instance, we’ve got three openers, so we don’t need to look for one. You need to identify the problem areas in your starting eleven, and essentially plug the gaps.”
Reflecting on the last year’s performance of DC, Ponting said, “The semi-final loss against Chennai (CSK) was disappointing of course. But we played some great cricket, and even now, about 7-8 months after the tournament, I feel like there were times when we were the best team in the competition. I just remember how much fun everybody had. It was a totally different environment than most other IPLs that I have been a part of. The idea is to recreate that atmosphere and culture with our new and existing bunch of players.”
On the addition of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane to the side, Ponting said, “They are the kind of players who are likely to do well on the (Ferozshah) Kotla wicket, and of course, bring tremendous experience with them.”
