A total of 18 players were retained by their previous IPL teams ahead of the mega 2018 auction in Bangalore on the 27 and 28 of January.
As expected, Virat Kohli stayed back at Royal Challengers Bangalore but in the process (and the negotiations that preceded the announcement) he became the league’s most expensive player. The Indian skipper signed a contract for Rs 17 crore a year with RCB, 2 crores more than the league’s prescribed salary cap for the top retained player.
Kings XI Punjab’s mentor and former Delhi Daredevils opener Virender Sehwag however was of the opinion that Virat could have fetched a lot more than the bank-breaking sum. ‘Had he entered the auction, Virat would have gone for much more,’ said Sehwag told The Quint in an exclusive chat on the sidelines of the shoot of his new campaign ‘Election se Selection’.
The other big news that came out of the auction was that Kolkata Knight Riders chose to not retain Gautam Gambhir, a player who had led the team to two titles in the past. ‘I am not surprised KKR did not retain Gambhir,’ Sehwag told The Quint.
Sehwag instead believes that KKR will most likely pick Gambhir up once again, but at the auction, using the ‘Right to Match’ card.
Each team is given the ‘RTM’ option at the auction to reclaim a player who played with their team last season, after the bidding for him has been finished. Knowing the final sum that the player would have been bought for, the IPL team can choose to instead use the card and keep the player back.
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