Former India all-rounder Ajit Agarkar believes that the upcoming IPL auction will be mostly about which teams will get the best Indian players and make the team around them.
The IPL Mega Auction ahead of the 2022 edition of the tournament will be held in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13. Amongst the 590 cricketers set to go under the hammer during the two-day mega auction, 370 are Indian cricketers.
"It's a good thing but you still have to build now for the future for more teams, older teams are able to only retain their four players which is never easy for the likes of Mumbai Indians or some of the stronger teams because they have more than four players that they would have wanted to retain. But yes, it is going to be about who gets the best Indians and who makes the use of that in the auction and eventually build your team around it," said Agarkar on 'Game Plan: IPL Auction Special' show on Star Sports.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra felt Indian players will have a big pay-day in the IPL auctions and also chose who will be the most expensive buys.
"Indians are going to have a field day, they'll be laughing their way to the bank. Ishan Kishan will be expensive and Shreyas Iyer will be expensive. So, watch out for Indians like Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Yuzi Chahal, Rahul Chahar. Cumulatively, if you put Chahar brothers together, I think that family will take most money on this auction day."
Agarkar further suggested that if Royal Challengers Bangalore could convince Virat Kohli to be their captain in the 2022 season, then they can save a lot of money at the auction. "If Virat Kohli can take over the captaincy and if he is happy to do it and if he has the energy to do it, I think that will be the easiest solution for them. At the end of the day, we have seen RCB over the years they haven't invested enough money in making a proper team of 12, 13 or 14 players with enough depth."
"It's always been dependent on the top three, not enough middle order players and if you don't have the money, you can't do that again. So, if you break the bank for one player, doesn't matter how good he is -- will win you games but will never win you competitions."
IPL 2022 Auction: RCB's retention list
Agarkar signed off by being doubtful about Lucknow Super Giants and Ahmedabad teams being on par with the original eight franchises in terms of picking KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya respectively through the draft.
"Yes, I think so -- I think to a large extent you have got some of the big names like say, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul those sorts of names that you have been able to retain, which was not the case before when the two new teams had come earlier, which was a lot harder on those new teams. So, I am not sure if it's even-stevens at the moment."
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)