New Delhi, Flamboyant keeper-batter Rishabh Pant’s nine-year association with Delhi Capitals officially ended on Thursday while South African Heinrich Klaasen with ₹23 crore valuation pipped none other than peerless Virat Kohli to emerge as the top-most retention for the upcoming IPL season.
KKR’s IPL-winning captain Shreyas Iyer is also back in the auction pool after his discussions with the management failed while Mumbai Indians retained all their five-star players, including skipper Hardik Panndya, national captains Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, pace ace Jasprit Bumrah and young NT Tilak Varma. They exhausted a full retention purse of ₹75 crore.
Punjab Kings have spent just ₹9.5 crore, the least amount for retention, on two uncapped players Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh. They would go into the auction with the highest purse of ₹110.5 crore and also four RTM cards.
DC’s ownership structure is a complete one with co-owners GMR and JSW getting powers to control management for two years at a time. Hence Pant, who is a JSW recruit, wasn’t the top choice for GMR management headed by co-owner Kiran Grandhi.
The moment GMR took charge, they removed earlier coaching management including former Director of Cricket Sourav Ganguly and brought in Venugopal Rao.
If sources are to be believed, Pant wasn’t exactly very pleased with the appointment of Rao and Hemang Badani, who possibly would have been given powers to overrule the skipper.
Discussions over the last month didn’t yield any result and Pant didn’t want to work with unfamiliar coaching staff thrust on him by the new management.
Retentions: Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abhishek Porel ₹43.75 crores. Purse for Auction: ₹76.25 crore.
Star Studded MI
Mumbai Indians didn’t have much of a choice save one slot where they could pick fresh blood. They have paid Jasprit Bumrah the top retention price of ₹18 crore while India T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav and franchise skipper Hardik Pandya were paid equal retention price. Retentions: Jasprit Bumrah , Suryakumar Yadav , Hardik Pandya , Rohit Sharma , NT Tilak Varma . Retention Price: ₹75 crore. Purse for auction: ₹45 crores.
RTM: 1 RCB and Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli and RCB are inseparable and hence if there would have been one retention, it would be the iconic India batter.
Retention: Virat Kohli , Rajat Patidar, and Yash Dayal ₹37 crore. Auction Purse: ₹83 crore. RTM: 3
Punjab Kings
Not getting into the playoffs for 10 straight years means that the Punjab Kings never had a settled look. They retained only two uncapped players keeper-opener Prabhsimran Singh and finisher Shashank Singh.
Retention: 9.5 crore. Auction Purse: ₹110.5 crore RTM: 4
KKR retains its core
Shreyas Iyer must have thought that he is worth way more than his current value of ₹12.25 crore after leading KKR to IPL title.
However not being an automatic India T20 choice and a poor strike rate of less than 140 meant that KKR was never going to shell out big bucks for him. The franchise has released him and he is DC’s No.1 captaincy target. The franchise is believed to have kept ₹20 crore minimum for him.
Retentions: Rinku Singh Varun Chakravarthy Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep. Retention: ₹57 crore. Purse: ₹63 crore. RTM: 0.
SRH and Hein ‘Rich’ Klaasen
Heinrich Klaasen at ₹23 crore is value for money as he probably is one of the best hitters of Indian spinners on slow tracks, a rare USP among foreign batters.
Retention: Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head Retention: ₹75 crore Auction Purse: ₹45 crore.
CSK and prudence
CSK didn’t have too many surprises except giving the same retention amount to both skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and veteran Ravi Jadeja. MS Dhoni, for whom uncapped player rule was created, was retained for ₹4 crore.
Retention: Ruturaj Gaikwad , Matheesha Pathirana , Shivam Dube , Ravindra Jadeja , MS Dhoni . Retention: ₹65 crore. Auction Purse: ₹55 cr. RTM 1.
Rajasthan Royals
RR had room for all the talent that it groomed over the years with no place for Jos Buttler, R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Retention: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma
Retention: ₹79 crore Purse: ₹41 crore RTM: 0
LSG release Rahul
Keeping Nicholas Pooran at a premium price of ₹21 crore seems to be a good choice.
Retention: Nicholas Pooran Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni. Retention: ₹51 crore AUction Purse: ₹69 crore
For GT, Rashid is a safe place
T20 league’s premier bowler Rashid Khan was given top billing at ₹18 crore while India’s white-ball vice-captain Shubman Gill was second highest retention for the franchise.
Retention: Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia, M Shahrukh Khan, Retention: 51 crore Auction Purse: ₹69 crore. RTM 1.
