Royal Challengers expected to bid handsomely for Holder

NEW DELHI, Feb 7: Former West Indies captain and premier all-rounder Jason Holder could well turn out to be one of the most expensive buys at this edition of Indian Premier League’s mega-auction with Royal Challengers Bangalore expected to bid heavily for him.
If sources privy to RCB’s auction strategy are to be believed, the franchise is likely to bid up to Rs 12 crore because of his multiple skill-sets. ‘‘Ben Stokes isn’t available, Hardik Pandya and Marcus Stoinis are taken. Mitchell Marsh you never know whether he can survive a full IPL with his injury prone career, Holder has been phenomenal if one looks at his record. RCB will like to go the distance as some others will also pitch in,’’ a source close to the franchise told PTI.
It is understood that RCB, who have Rs 57 crore in their auction purse are interested in three players including Holder, former CSK batter Ambati Rayudu and young ex-Rajasthan Royals turk Riyan Parag.
‘‘For Holder, they have reserved Rs 12 crore and another Rs 8 crore for Rayudu and Rs 7 crore for Parag. If they spend Rs 27 crore approximately on these players, they would have another Rs 28 crore left.’’
While the auction dynamic can’t be predicted, Holder’s emergence as a potent IPL auction star has happened.
RCB are looking at a potential captaincy candidate after Virat Kohli stepped down from the post last season. Whether they buy someone like Shreyas Iyer or request Kohli to do it for one more season is the question.
Meanwhile, 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.
‘‘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 to say 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, a show on Star Sports. (Agencies)