Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has made clear what the priorities of his side is going to be at the upcoming auction. "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 Australian skipper also said that he is thrilled to have R Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane in his camp and they will "bring tremendous experience with them".
"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.
Capitals have 14 players and have 11 slots available going into the auction. They have a fat wallet - INR 27.85 crore (US$ 3,939,760 approx.) to spend at the auction.
"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.
