Veteran commentator Sanjay Manjrekar said that the Punjab Kings (PBKS) will be eager to reacquire talented pacer Arshdeep Singh at the IPL 2025 auction. However, the veteran also believes the left-arm seamer is not quite the same bowler he was five years ago. With 19 scalps in 14 innings, Arshdeep was PBKS’ second-highest wickettaker in IPL 2024 as well. He also recently became India’s highest wicket-taking seamer in T20Is. However, the PBKS released him and retained only two uncapped players – Shashank Singh (₹5.5 crore) and Prabhsimran Singh (₹4 crore) – ahead of the auction as well.
On the Star Sports show ‘Game Plan’, Sanjay Manjrekar and Sunil Gavaskar opened up on this where Manjrekar said: “The idea (behind releasing Arshdeep) is for them to have some freedom and there is nothing Arshdeep Singh has done that wrong for them to suddenly not be interested. I think he is still a bowler that can make an impact with the new ball plus bowl at the death. He is not quite the same bowler he was five years back when he made a name for himself, but Punjab Kings would be very keen to have him.”
“He (Shami) is a big-match player and he has got class. But I see the price tag coming down a little bit because of the injury concerns. You wonder because it has been such a long sort of comeback to fitness that most franchises would be slightly wary despite Shami’s ability,” Manjrekar again added.
In the same show, Sunil Gavaskar also opined that the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) would look to reacquire Mitchell Starc at the IPL 2025 auction as well. He also added that the left-arm seamer is likely to be sold relatively cheaper than last time.
“KKR would want him (Starc) back in the team because you want the winning combination as much as possible. But I am not too sure that he will go for the kind of record price that he went for in the previous auction,” he said. “Trent Boult is one of those bowlers who gets you a wicket in the first over. So clearly I think he will be in demand but I do believe that Rajasthan Royals will go for him again. Again it’s a matter of getting a team combination which has been good the previous season, try and get as many as possible back,” Gavaskar reasoned.
