IPL 2018: Former Mumbai Indians' coach expects KKR's Chris Lynn to become a million-dollar player

Chris Lynn is one of the biggest hitters in world cricket, but injuries have always posed problems for the Australian, who represented Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2017. With the IPL 2018 auction coming up in January 27-28, former Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting is confident of Lynn becoming a million dollar player even if he does not head into the auction.

IPL 2018 is going to be interesting as teams will undergo massive changes. As per the new retention policy, teams can retain a maximum of five players (combination of player retention before auction and right-to-match at auction).

But, franchises have a tough decision to make as they will have to shell out major chunk of money from their auction purse if they want to retain some of their stars from their 2017 squad. Teams deciding to retain three players before the auction will have to cough up 33 crores, 21 crores (2 players) and 12.5 crores (one player).

For Kolkata Knight Riders, Lynn could one of the players, who could be retained by the franchise. However, that might depend on how well he performs in the ongoing Big Bash and scouts will also be looking closely at his injury issues. He has not played much cricket after IPL 2017.

With Lynn being a big name in T20, Ponting believes he could make mega money irrespective of whether KKR retains him or he is present in the pool of players available for the auction.

"Either way I think he (Lynn) will become a million-dollar player,'' news.com.au quoted Ponting as saying.

If he is one of the players to go under the hammer in Bengaluru next month, teams will go all out to attain his signature.

He was just phenomenal in IPL 2017, instilling fear in his opponents when he had the willow in his hand. Lynn scored 295 runs from 7 matches with a strike rate of 180.98. Such stats in the IPL are worth their weight in gold.