KPL 2018: Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey head list of retained players

Bangalore, July 18, 2018: With the KPL Players Auction set for Saturday, July 21, the seven franchises, who were given the option of retaining a maximum of four players each, have made their choices. There were 28 players in all who could be retained, and the Franchises made full use of their quotas by retaining all 28, albeit not all are Pool A players, which in a way indicates the depth of talent in the State.

India players Vinay Kumar (Hubli Tigers), Manish Pandey and Stuart Binny (both Belagavi Panthers) lead the list of players retained after the Franchises took into consideration factors like availability of players, form and learnings from the past season. But for a variety of reasons the likes of Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, K Goutham and Shreyas Gopal were not retained by the respective teams.

Each one of them though, led by Agarwal and Nair, will no doubt go big in Saturday’s Auction. With the Indian Test team for the tour of England named for the first three Tests and Nair being part of the team, he will miss at least the first part of the KPL but the Franchises will be sweating on the availability of Agarwal.

With Gowtham and Gopal, the success they enjoyed in the IPL Season just gone by will no doubt be a big factor. The two Karnataka spinners plied their trade for Rajasthan Royals and between them snared the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers among other big names. That both can bat too will make them very wanted indeed when the Pool A players come up at the Auction. Of course, like with Agarwal, their availability too depends on the India A team selection.

Off-spinning all-rounder Gowtham was in fact last season’s highest buy along with left-handed top-order batsman Amit Verma, who is also a useful leg-spinner. Both went for Rs 7.20 lakh and will be the cynosure again.

Apart from the retained players, the rest of the squad will be finalized at the auction before which the Franchises will be provided with a list of players, categorized into Pool A and Pool B, to choose from.

In all a squad has to comprise of minimum 15 players and maximum 18 players. Besides the players picked up at the auction, each team has to mandatorily include two players from their respective catchment areas. A sum of Rs 20,000 is allocated for this over and above the Rs 30 lakh ceiling at the Player Auction. The Rs 30 lakh includes the amounts to be paid to the retained players.

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