India's latest pace sensation Mayank Yadav is set to walk into the IPL 'Million Dollar Club' after making his international debut in the first T20 International against Bangladesh on Sunday, with Lucknow Super Giants needing a minimum of Rs 11 crore (US$ 1.31 million) to retain his services for IPL 2025.
Similarly, Sunrisers Hyderabad will also need to pay a minimum Rs 11 crore to avail all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy's services after his international debut in the same match.
As per IPL retention rules, any uncapped player, who makes his international debut in any of the three formats before the auctions will be elevated to the capped player category.
The retention prices for the first three capped players are in the following order: Rs 18 crore, Rs 14 crore and Rs 11 crore, while for the fourth and fifth player the retention price will be Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore respectively.
While the deadline for announcing the retention list is October 31,
While veteran K L Rahul, South African Quinton de Kock, West Indies dasher Nicholas Pooran and Australian Marcus Stoinis are the other heavyweight names in LSG's 2024 roster, there is no way that head coach Justin Langer and new mentor Zaheer Khan will let go of one of India's raw pace bowling diamonds.
While it is too early to predict the classification of retained players, but the 22-year-old Mayank is all set to laugh his way to the bank, even if he is the third retention.
"There is no way that LSG will put a rare bowler like Mayank back in auction pool. They have invested in him for past two seasons and he will certainly be one among the top three retentions," an IPL source told PTI.
It might not be the same for Nitish Reddy as SRH in all likelihood will have Pat Cummins, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma as first three retentions.
Reddy, who is an all-rounder, looks more like a Right To Match (RTM) candidate in the long run.
