For a period of time, there was enough suspense surrounding whether Andre Russell would be retained or not by the Kolkata Knight Riders. Eventually, the franchise took the decision to retain their star all-rounder. It also means that they won’t have the RTM option in the auction. Shreyas Iyer, the current KKR skipper, however, will now be a part of the auction. Their final list is as follows: Sunil Narine (12 cr), Rinku Singh (13 cr), Varun Chakravarthy (12 cr), Harshit Rana (4 cr), Russell (12 cr) and Ramandeep Singh (4 cr).
SunRisers Hyderabad forked out 23 crore for Heinrich Klaasen. They’ve also re-signed captain Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Nitish Reddy. With all of them being capped, SRH’s RTM can only be used on an uncapped player. Rishabh Pant won’t represent Delhi Capitals for the next season. Instead, he will be back in the auction. Axar Patel, Tristan Stubbs, Kuldeep Yadav and Abhishek Porel will form their core.
KL Rahul, the LSG skipper, has decided to part ways with the franchise. Nicholas Pooran (21 cr), Ravi Bishnoi (11 cr), Mayank Yadav (11 cr), Mohsin Khan (4 cr) and Ayush Badoni (4 cr) are the cricketers who have been retained by LSG. On the other hand, Sanju Samson (18 cr), Yashasvi Jaiswal (18 cr), Riyan Parag (14 cr), Dhruv Jurel (14 cr), Shimron Hetmyer (11 cr) and Sandeep Sharma (4cr) have been retained by Rajasthan Royals. So, Jos Buttler, one of their mainstays, has been let go of. RR won’t be able to use the RTM in the auction.
For Mumbai Indians, Jasprit Bumrah (18 cr), Rohit Sharma (16.35 cr), Tilak Varma (8 cr), Hardik Pandya (16.35 cr) and Suryakumar Yadav (16.35 cr) make it to the retention list. Hardik will yet again lead the side. Gujarat Titans’ list includes Rashid Khan (18 cr), Shubman Gill (16.5 cr), Sai Sudarshan (8.5 cr), Rahul Tewatia (4 cr) and Shahrukh Khan (4 cr). Samson will continue to lead the set-up.
Chennai Super Kings, the five-time champions, have also issued their retained players’ catalogue – Ruturaj Gaikwad, Matheesha Pathirana, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni. As per the new rules, Dhoni is now an uncapped retention, so they can still utilise the RTM.
Meanwhile, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru have gone on to retain Virat Kohli (21 cr), Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal. So, Faf du Plessis, the incumbent skipper, doesn’t find a place. Arshdeep Singh, one of the fulcrums of PBKS’ attack, has been released, while Shashank Singh (5.5 cr) and Prabhsimran Singh (4 cr) have been retained.
The following are the remaining purse for various IPL teams:
CSK – 55 Cr
MI – 45 Cr
DC – 76.25 Cr
KKR – 63 Cr
RCB – 83 Cr
LSG – 69 Cr
PBKS – 110.5 Cr
SRH – 45 Cr
RR – 41 Cr
GT – 69 Cr