The big names are all set to be retained by Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians ahead of the mega auction for the next year’s edition of the Indian Premier League, says a report in ESPNcricinfo.
Dhoni, Kohli, Rohit – three of India’s mightiest crowd-pullers – will not be released for the auction and continue their longstanding association with CSK, RCB and MI.
Apart from the three giant cricketers, Jasprit Bumrah, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson are among the other prominent retentions made before the auction expected to be held next in December-January.
There were speculations that Dhoni has already played his last IPL for CSK, but the franchise seem set to keep their legendary skipper and wicketkeeper-batter with them for at least one more season.
The 40-year-old Dhoni led the Kings to their fourth IPL title in November and has over the years come to be a synonym with not just the Chennai franchise but the passionate city it is based in.
However, Kohli, who relinquished his captaincy post for RCB at the end of IPL 2021, is going to continue representing the popular franchise as a specialist batter. Kohli led RCB in every season from 2013-2021 with an exceptional record as a batter but opted to let go of the leadership duties to manage his workload going forward.
Rohit also looks set to continue leading and opening the batting for MI. The experienced right-hand batter has led MI to an unprecedented five IPL titles and is expected to stay put in the leadership post, even as the last season’s struggles and his own indifferent returns piled on some scrutiny on him.
Here is a list of other retentions made by existing franchises before the IPL 2022 mega auction, as reported by ESPNcricinfo. The order of appearance here is not as per the teams’ retention list.
Chennai Super Kings: Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell
Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson
Final confirmation on the list of retained cricketers will come by November 30 evening in a show organised over host broadcaster Star Sports Network from IST 5 PM onwards. The deadline to identify the final retention ends at 12 PM IST.
The existing franchises can keep a maximum of four cricketers with them from the squad they had for IPL 2021. This, including a maximum of two overseas players. Existing franchises will lose a significant chunk of money from their total purse before the auction in case they retain their players.
Teams are allowed a purse of INR 90 crores to rebuild their squad ahead of IPL 2022. But stand to lose an amount of upto INR 42 crores in case they opt to retain the maximum of four cricketers. In retaining four players, a team will see a deduction of 16 crores for Player 1, 12 crores for Player 2, 8 crores for Player 3, 6 crores for Player 4.
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A team will lose amounts of INR 15 crores for Player 1, 11 crores for Player 2 and 7 crores for Player 3 if they retain three players. In keeping two players, the side will have a deduction of INR 14 crores and 10 crores from their purse. If they retain just one cricketer, they’ll have to shed INR 14 crores from their pocket. Retaining an uncapped Indian player will be the least expensive exercise, costing a team only INR 4 crores.
But apart from the cap on two overseas players, a team is not allowed to retain more than three Indian international players and two uncapped Indian players.
Two new franchises based in Lucknow and Ahmedabad will be able to sign a few players ahead of the auction from a pool of cricketers left after the existing franchises have had their retentions.
