Kagiso Rabada took 5 wickets against Bangladesh. (Photo: PTI)
The retention deadline for IPL 2025 ends today i.e. Thursday, October 31. In a few hours, the 10 teams will have to announce the names of their retained players. On this important day, a star player of Punjab Kings has put team owner Preity Zinta in trouble. Here we are talking about the legendary fast bowler Kagiso Rabada. It has wreaked havoc in Bangladesh during the hold days. Rabada has opened his claws again. He took 5 wickets while bowling lethally in the 2nd Test against Bangladesh. His performance has left the Punjab team in a dilemma as they wanted to release him.
Rabada becomes number one, will Punjab retain him?
Punjab Kings owner Preity Zinta had drawn up a mega plan for IPL 2025 along with head coach Ricky Ponting. According to media reports, he had decided to release all star players, including Kagiso Rabada. She was going to retain only two players with no limits. Meanwhile, Rabada must have put Punjab Kings in a dilemma with his brilliant performance. Let us tell you that Kagiso Rabada has taken 14 wickets to his name so far in this series.
In the first match against Bangladesh, he took 9 wickets and was the hero of the victory. Now, also in the ongoing 2nd Test match at Chattogram, he took 5 wickets for 37 runs in 9 overs. Not only this, thanks to this performance he also snatched the number one Test crown from Jasprit Bumrah.
Apart from this, recently Rabada became the fastest bowler in the history of Test cricket to take 300 wickets in terms of balls. However, his performance in the last season of IPL was not that good. Rabada had taken only 11 wickets in 11 matches. His economy was also 8.86. Considering his form, it remains to be seen whether Punjab Kings will retain him or not.
Plan to land with more money
Retention of Punjab Kings wants to enter the mega auction with minimal expenses and a big purse. Maybe that’s why they have decided to retain only 2 uncapped players, Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh, for less money. Not only that, Preity Zinta is looking for a good captain. She has said it herself.
This time some big players like Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul are expected to attend the mega auction. He also has captaincy experience. But it may require a good amount of money to purchase them. In such a situation, if you have more money, you can openly bid for the player of your choice. However, Preity Zinta’s team will once again have the challenge of forming a new team.
