It is officially IPL season! 18 retentions were made by the eight IPL teams and yes, MSD is back in yellow, Virat Kohli stays with RCB and well, Delhi continue to make some odd choices.
Before we move ahead. Let me explain what retentions are.
With the end of IPL 2017, all the teams were dissolved and now with CSK and Rajasthan Royals coming back from their suspensions this seasons, all teams get to build their squads from scratch. However, they get to ‘retain’ a few players ahead of the big auctions and that’s what the teams did last night.
Virat Most Expensive
Virat Kohli has now become the most expensive player in IPL history. Retained by RCB along with AB de Villiers and Sarfraz Khan, Kohli will now be paid a massive 17 crores. Much, much more than that prescribed salary cap Rs 15 crore that MS Dhoni or even Rohit Sharma will be given.
Gambhir No More a Knight
Gautam Gambhir has been left out in the cold by Kolkata Knight Riders. Having led the team to two IPL titles and after finishing as the league’s second-highest scorer last season, KKR still chose to not retain their skipper ahead of the Jan 27-28 auction. Sunil Narine and Andre Russell however are the two names the team did elect to keep back.
Ponting New Delhi Coach
Ricky Ponting has joined the IPL once again, this time as Delhi Daredevils coach. He comes in place of Rahul Dravid who ended ties with the league to keep in line with the BCCI’s conflict of interest rules. Ponting has earlier coached Mumbai Indians for two seasons. Delhi chose to use their quota of three players for retention, keeping Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris and Shreyas Iyer but for salaries much less than the league’s limit.
Dhoni Reunites With Raina
Bring out your yellow jerseys, MS Dhoni is back at Chennai Super Kings. Who under the sun did not know MSD would be returning to CSK? He reunites at the franchise with Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja and will pick a pretty cool prize purse of Rs 15 crore.
Smith Back at Rajasthan
Finally, the teams with one single picks each – The Aussie skipper returns to Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab have retained Axar Patel. While Smith collects 12 crores, KXIP seem to have negotiated a salary of Rs 6.75 crore with Axar. Remember now even though Axar gets only Rs 6.75 crores, the money cut from Punjab’s kitty for the auction is a whole Rs 12.5 crore meaning they go into Jan 27 with Rs 67.5 crores.