IPL 2018 Player Retention: All You Need To Know! (GK WORLD)

IPL 2018 Player Retention: All You Need To Know!

Hack:

• Two franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals will mark their return to IPL fold
• Each team can opt for up to five players by virtue of a combination of Player Retention and Right to Match

The evening of January 4, 2018, finally put to rest all the speculations surrounding the IPL 11 player retentions. All eight franchises, including the two comeback teams, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, submitted the list of their retained players to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which then made the list official on Thursday. 

Each team is allowed to retain a maximum of five players. In these five, there can be three capped Indian players, two uncapped Indian players and two overseas players in any combination.

While some teams made obvious retentions, others shocked the cricket enthusiasts with names which could have been swapped with better performing players.

Chennai Super Kings 

CSK are back after two years and how! They retained their all-time leading run-getter in Suresh Raina (11 cr), all-rounder and match-winner Ravindra Jadeja (7 cr) and two-time IPL-winning captain MS Dhoni (15 cr). As RTM card is not an option anymore, It will be interesting to see who they pick from the two overseas options. Having not retained some big names like Dwayne Bravo, Brendon McCullum and Faf du Plessis came as a surprise.  

Rajasthan Royals 

Rajasthan Royals had the option to pick from six players but decided to retain only one – Australian captain Steve Smith (12 cr). Not choosing to retain Ajinkya Rahane and James Faulkner came as a big blow to the fans.  

Kolkata Knight Riders 

The biggest shocker coming from KKR was the exclusion of two-time IPL-winning captain Gautam Gambhir from list of players retained. They opted to retain the West Indian duo of Sunil Narine (8.5 cr) and Andre Russell (7 cr), which means they cannot opt for a third overseas player using RTM card. In such a scenario, the exclusion of Chris Lynn comes as surprise, given that he was their star performer last year on a fast non-spinning Eden Gardens track. 

Delhi Daredevils 

Delhi Daredevils opted to retain Shreyas Iyer (7 cr), Rishabh Pant (8 cr) and Chris Morris (7.1 cr), all three of the considered as astounding performers. However, looking beyond Quinton de Kock was unpredictable.  

Kings XI Punjab 

Kings XI opted to retain just one player in all-rounder Axar Patel (6.75), and while he has been their star player, a deduction of 12.5 Cr from their purse on him alone looks too luxurious on part of the management. It would have been interesting to see them retain Glenn Maxwell and David Miller too.  

Mumbai Indians 

(Rohit Sharma – 15 cr, Hardik Pandya – 11 cr, Jasprit Bumrah – 7 cr) 

Captain Rohit Sharma ( 15 cr) along with Indian stars Hardik Pandya (11 cr) and Jasprit Bumrah (7 cr) has been retained by the three-time champions. The exclusion of Harbhajan Singh and Kieron Pollard suggests that the franchise wants a young team.  

Royal Challengers Bangalore 

RCB, which will be very eager to finally open their IPL trophy account this year, retained one Indian, one overseas and one uncapped player in Virat Kohli ( 17 cr), AB de Villiers (11 cr) and Sarfaraz Khan (1.75 cr) respectively, the last one coming as big stroke. Yuzvendra Chahal and Chris Gayle were a surprise exclusion.  

Sunrisers Hyderabad 

Captain David Warner (12 cr) and bowling spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar (8.5 cr) have been retained by the 2016 champions. While Yuvraj Singh’s absence from the list is understandable, yet missing name of star bowler Rashid Khan was questionable.  

The fans will now await the mega event, IPL Auction 2018 where the complete squads will be formed through RTM cards and fresh bidding. As per rules, each team has to have a minimum of 18 players (maximum 25 with 8 overseas players) and a salary cap of INR 80 crore. The event will take place in Bengaluru on January 27 and 28.