IPL 2020 | Delhi should retain Dhawan, Iyer and Pant as three Indian players, opines Aakash Chopra

With BCCI set to welcome the ninth franchise, a mega auction is the only possible way to have all the teams on a level field, which looks likely. If the mega auction does go through as speculated, teams would have to pick their three best players during the retention procedure before picking up another two players using the Right-to-Match (RTM) card. 

For franchises like Mumbai and Delhi, who have a set core established, the auction would likely hit them in terms of their team combination. Former Indian opener turned cricket expert Aakash Chopra has opined that Delhi should retain the services of their Indian core - Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant leaving out the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Prithvi Shaw on the auction table. 

“I would say Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant as the three Indians although Rishabh Pant did not have a good year but I will definitely retain him and I am pretty sure that the Delhi Capitals will also do that,” said Chopra on his YouTube channel, reported HT. 

“The others will have to go. They will be a little sad about players like Prithvi Shaw, Ashwin and Axar Patel as they are two or three players they may want to keep in the team but I don’t think it will be possible to keep all of them,” said Chopra.

In terms of the overseas option, Delhi would have to pick just two out of their four foreign stars. Chopra reckoned that Delhi would be better off picking Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and Saffer pacer Kagiso Rabada as the two overseas choices with a view to buy back Anrich Nortje in the IPL auction.

“If I have to retain two overseas players, I will be keen to retain Marcus Stoinis and Kagiso Rabada. There could be a toss-up between Marcus Stoinis and Anrich Nortje but I will go with Marcus and try to buy back Nortje in the auction,” he concluded.