Ricky Ponting identifies coach who could go for big bucks in IPL 2020 auctions

Head coach of Delhi Capitals Ricky Ponting has stated that his franchise will be looking to pick up quality fast bowlers in the upcoming IPL auctions that will be held in Kolkata on December 19. “There’s going to be a lot of focus and attention on fast bowlers, overseas ones in particular. Pat Cummins could go for big money, as could Chris Woakes,” Ponting said in a Capitals statement. “All-rounders are always interesting in my opinion. Players like Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh, Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme could all be big picks.”

The former Aussie batter also mentioned that he was ecstatic to have Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane in the Delhi camp as they come loaded with plenty of experience.

“They are the kind of players who are likely to do well on the [Ferozshah] Kotla wicket, and of course, bring tremendous experience with them,” he further added.

The Delhi side has 14 players in their side currently and have 11 slots open. They have a healthy wallet of INR 27.85 crores and could spend heftily on some of the big stars.

“Going into the auction you have to be very specific about the kind of players you need,” Ponting said. “For instance, we’ve got three openers [Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw], so we don’t need to look for one. You need to identify the problem areas in your starting eleven, and essentially plug the gaps.

“We’ve had several discussions over the last few months, and have put in a lot of time and effort to make sure that we’re well prepared. You can do all the planning in the world, but at the auction table, the unpredictable always happens.”

“The semi-final loss against Chennai [Super Kings] was disappointing of course,” Ponting said of the 2019 season. “But we played some great cricket, and even now, about 7-8 months after the tournament, I feel like there were times when we were the best team in the competition.