KKR hold onto Gambhir, Delhi keep none
New Delhi: Defending champions Mumbai Indians, the formidable Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are three teams who have exhausted all five of their retentions available for the seventh edition of the IPL as the franchises submitted their list to the Governing Council on Friday.
Almost all the established India players have been retained by their respective franchises. CSK predictably retained skipper MS Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina and West Indies’ Dwayne Bravo.
Mumbai Indians went with their champion skipper Rohit Sharma, senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard, Sri Lankan slinger Lasith Malinga and talented batsman Ambati Rayudu.
Aussie pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson will in all likelihood be picked up with ‘Right to Match’ card while Dinesh Karthik got the boot.
Royal Challengers Bangalore retained their captain Virat Kohli, Jamaican gamechanger Chris Gayle and explosive South African ODI and T20 skipper AB de Villiers.
Rajasthan Royals retained Australian Shane Watson, who will lead the side in IPL 7 along with left-arm seamer James Faulkner and India internationals Ajinkya Rahane and Stuart Binny.
Kings XI Punjab retained hard-hitting South African left-hander David Miller and talented Ranji team opener Manan Vohra. Vohra is another uncapped player to be retained.
Kolkata Knight Riders retained their skipper Gautam Gambhir along with mystery spinner Sunil Narine for the next edition of the cash-rich league.
Delhi Daredevils unanimously decided against retention of their existing player going into the Indian Premier League auction.
The team management explaining the decision said “it was the unanimous decision of the management with the focus of building a fresh team that the fans would be proud of”.
Johnson will now be favourite to be obtained through ‘Right to Match’ cards that Mumbai can exercise during the two-day auction on February 12-13.
“The formidable combination of these five players – Rohit, Pollard, Malinga, Bhajji and Rayudu – forms the nucleus of Mumbai Indians. They have exemplified the spirit of Mumbai Indians and are match-winners in their own right,” Nita Ambani, owner of MI, was quoted as saying in a press release.
“With the retention of the core players, Mumbai Indians look forward to build a stronger, well-knit team and share the joy of an enthralling and entertaining performance with its ever-growing fans in the coming season,” she further added.
Dinesh Karthik is another player who has missed out on retention as Rayudu being a specialist batsman and having the ability to do a decent job behind the stumps tilted the scales in his favour.
As far as Malinga is concerned, he has been a gamechanger for MI in the death overs and the possibility of some of the matches being played in Sri Lanka may have prompted the team management to take a call in the slinger’s favour.
Mumbai Indians have had phenomenal success over the last four years, both on and off the field, emerging as one of the most successful and followed teams.
The Shah Rukh Khan co-owned Kolkata Knight Riders have retained their captain Gambhir and Narine.
Gambhir has led the team to IPL glory in 2012 and is again set to lead the team for the fourth straight season while Narine has been one of the biggest assets for the Kolkata franchise.
KKR CEO Venky Mysore said, “We are delighted that we have managed to retain two of our key players. We hope to build a competitive and exciting squad. The challenges of salary cap deductions and the retention rules did not allow us to retain more of our original team, who made us proud over the past three years.”
KKR will have Rs 38 crores of salary cap space and two retention cards going into the auction in February.
Twenty-four players have been retained, including 14 Indians (of which three are uncapped) and 10 overseas players.
Among the eight franchises, Delhi Daredevils will go into auctions with full purse of 60 crores with three ‘Right to Match’ cards while CSK and MI will have the smallest purse of Rs 21 crore going into auction.
Rajasthan Royals will be going into auction with Rs 22.5 crore. KKR and Sunrisers (both with Rs 38 crore) and Kings XI Punjab (Rs 43.5 crore) who have had two retentions each, will all have two ‘Right to Match’ cards.
While David Warner, Morne Morkel (both DD) are expected to be back in their respective franchises with ‘Right to Match’ cards, the same can be expected for Quinton de Kock (Sunrisers), Faf du Plessis (CSK), Johnson (MI) and Mohammed Shami (KKR).
Retained players:
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo
Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard
Rajasthan Royals: Stuart Binny, James Faulkner, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Shane Watson
Royal Challengers Bangalore: AB De Villiers, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli
Sunrisers Huderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn.
Delhi Daredevils: No retentions. (PTI)