Puneet Nayyar

🟨 CSK’s much talked auction strategy, their approach in the past and what needs to change going forward? #CSK have predominantly relied on having experienced players, they always chased value deals for the aging stars (Rayudu, Bhajji, Uthappa, Dube, Rahane and the list goes on) who could give them better performance to price ratio, they have done a good job using this auction strategy, but that was in the past. Can we blame them completely for adapting this approach? I don’t think we can. The current IPL format of resetting everything with a mega auction after 3 years needs some rethinking. In my opinion, 3 years is not a long enough cycle for teams to reap benefits from grooming players by giving them opportunities at a young age and allowing them the margins to fail at a cost of team’s overall success. Something similar has also happened at #RR, where they looked to hold on to the players they developed but the valuations are all over the place. Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel and Hetmyer may not have gone for the prices they fetched from the retentions, but RR must have felt the need to keep those players with them and continue the good work. #KKR could have been in a similar situation with Harshit Rana and Ramandeep, but luckily their prices weren’t that steep as they were uncapped at that time. When the players go back to the auction pool, teams don’t earn anything from the increased valuations for those players. It’s not like football, where teams develop players and when those players leave, teams generate profits from the transfer fees. Mega auction resets everything and if teams are not re-signing the players they developed, teams are at a lose-lose situation, where they are potentially developing players for the weaker sides from the last cycle of the league (that's we see overpriced retentions from some teams which normally backfires immediately after the mega auctions). Teams need to have enough skin in the game to invest in their scouting departments, right now it is not happening. So, unless they are getting immediate returns (in the same cycle) from the younger players that they developed, teams are at a significant disadvantage in the current format. Also, it is absolutely unfair on the younger players if they have to start performing from the word go. Let’s look at the retentions of the current league leaders. 🔼Retentions of the current top 5 teams: GT-5 (UC:2), DC-4 (UC:1), RCB-3 (UC:1), PBKS-2 (UC:2), LSG-5 (UC:2) Total: 19 players including 8 uncapped (almost 50% of total players) —————————————————— 🔽Retentions of the current bottom 5 teams: MI-5, KKR-6 (UC:2), RR-6 (UC:1), SRH-5, CSK-5 (UC:1) Total: 27 players including 4 uncapped (Just around 15% of total players) Teams who tried to keep hold of more players from the last cycle have been affected negatively, at least as of now. While the mega auction is a great marketplace for the players, in my opinion, the teams should be incentivised more for grooming the younger uncapped players. IPL should seriously reconsider the mega auction cycle length; it can be increased from 3 to 5 years. After every 2nd year, teams should be allowed renegotiate the deals with players and allow the upside revision of their contracts (instead of putting them back in the auction pool and asking the marketplace to do that in the mega auction). Even the younger players will benefit if they continue with the same team for a longer duration. While it will be unfair to put the entire blame for CSK's failures on the mega auction strategy, CSK have finally and rightly shifted away from their trusted strategy and started looking at younger players, which is a positive change. In my opinion, in a 10-team format, it is difficult to survive without having your own wonder kids or value signings. In 2025, more and more teams are now looking to create their own stars, the best thing for the league would be to boost this further by revising mega auction rules, it will definitely help the entire ecosystem. In my humble opinion, we are in the 18th year of IPL and winning the IPL title should be based on years of hard work and not just an auction strategy after every 3rd year. What do you guys think? Would love to read more thoughts on this. #IPL2025 #MIvCSK

Delhi Capitals Playing XI ⬇️ David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shai Hope, Tristan Stubbs, Rishabh Pant (WK/C), Ricky Bhui, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Sumit Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed #PBKSvDC #PBKSvsDC