'Does he deserve to be an 18 crore player?' - Tom Moody expresses doubts on ace MI all-rounder ahead of mega-auction

The Board of Control for Cricket in India recently released the player regulations for the 18th edition of the Indian Premier League a few days back. Among the various regulations, was a certain rule which was pertaining to the maximum number of retentions that can be made by any franchise (six), as well as the retention slabs which have been released.

According to the slabs, there will be two players who will be valued at INR 18 crore, as many for INR 14 crore, and one for INR 11 crore. Former Australian and ex-head coach of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Tom Moody, disclosed his choices for the various slabs. He also discussed why he thought Hardik Pandya was not one of the players to deserve the INR 18 crore amount while naming his first couple of choices for that very classification.  

"The way that things panned out in the last edition of the IPL, he (Rohit Sharma) would be, I think, a little bit disillusioned with what happened over the last 6-12 months. I would have Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav at 18, and Hardik at 14. (Leaving) is up to him or you can put it down to his performance, form and fitness. And when you dissect all of those areas with Hardik Pandya, does he deserve to be an 18-crore player? Is he worth? If you've got to be an 18 crore player, you've got to be a genuine match-winner and do it regularly. Hardik Pandya, through his trials and tribulations over the last edition of the IPL, was struggling with both fitness and performance. Tilak Varma absolutely," stated Moody, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

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They will have to make some hard decisions: Moody

The IPL 2016-winning head coach further highlighted a strategy that MI have employed over the last few editions which has got them in a kind of a pickle. He justified his opinion by providing definitive cases of Ishan Kishan and Jofra Archer to get his point across the table. 

"They've had a little bit of a problem at the auction table in last couple of years. They've gotten caught up in a way too loyal in some cases and tried to retain, or get players back into their squad, which has cost them dearly. Classic examples were Ishan Kishan and Jofra Archer, both coming at a heavy price. Did they get the return? I look at Ishan Kishan and I think 'look, he's a terrific player and is exciting. But also runs very hot and cold'. How many matches has he won out of his bat? That's a question you've got to ask. If you're paying him around 14 crore for retention, are you going to get the return from a performance point of view? They will have to make some hard decisions," added Moody.

Also Read: IPL 2025: Ajay Jadeja predicts CSK’s retentions ahead of mega auction

MI might be one of the few franchises that might be suffering from a problem of plenty, considering the amount of talented and seasoned professionals they have at their disposal. It will truly be interesting to witness the list of players they go ahead with, with October 31, 2024, being the deadline for the franchises to finalize their retentions.