Dhoni, Raina and Jadeja return to CSK; RCB retain Sarfaraz

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MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina return to Chennai Super Kings after the franchise comes out of its two-year suspension. © Getty

MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja will return to Chennai Super Kings as the IPL franchises announced their list of retentions on Thursday (January 4) in Mumbai. As CSK opted to retain three players, their auction purse of INR 80 Crore was deducted by 33 Crore (15 Crore for the first player, 11 Crore for the second and 7 for the third).

Indian captain Virat Kohli and South African superstar AB de Villiers will continue their allegiance with Royal Challengers Bangalore along with uncapped Sarfaraz Khan, even ahead of the likes of Chris Gayle and Yuzvendra Chahal. Kohli’s league fee (or actual price) was defined as INR 17 Crore by the franchise, and thus the purse was diminished by the same. As per the laws, the deduction from salary purse in case of retention will be determined on the basis of guideline price (15 crore) or actual price (whichever is higher). In this case, Kohli’s 17 Crore took precedence.

List of retained players:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja

Delhi Daredevils: Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris, Shreyas Iyer

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah

Kolkata Knight Riders: Andre Russell, Sunil Narine

Kings XI Punjab: Axar Patel

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan

Rajasthan Royals: Steven Smith

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Gautam Gambhir, who led the Kolkata Knight Riders to two title wins (in 2012 and 2014), was not retained by the franchise. They, however, went ahead with West Indies all-rounders Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. Russell, though, was not a part of the previous edition owing to his one-year ban for doping whereabouts violation.

As expected, defending champions Mumbai Indians decided to retain skipper Rohit Sharma. They also included Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah to complete their list of three retentions.

Much like CSK, Delhi Daredevils too went in for the maximum of three retentions, including wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris and Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer in their outfit. Alongside the announcement of players being retained, DD also unveiled Ricky Ponting as their head coach.

Sunrisers Hyderabad retained skipper David Warner along with purple cap holder of the last edition, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Kings XI Punjab went for just one retention, naming spin-bowling all-rounder Axar Patel. Like KXIP, Rajasthan Royals retained just one player by including Australia captain Steven Smith. In the last season, Smith led Rising Pune Supergiant.

PURSE LEFT AND RTMs:

Following the players’ retention, KXIP and RR – who retained just one player each, are now left with a purse of 67.5 Crore ahead of the mega auction to be held on January 27 and 28. KKR and SRH, after their two retentions, are left with a purse of 59 Crore. While RCB will go into the auction with 49 Crores in the bank; CSK, DD and MI will have a purse of 47 Crores.

As per the rules laid down by the IPL GC, any franchise can hold onto five of their players, by virtue of a combination of Player Retention (Pre Player Auction) and Right to Match (RTM) (during the Player Auction). However, there could only be a maximum of either 3 retentions or 3 RTM at the discretion of the franchises. If there is no retention before player auction, then franchises can have up to 3 RTMs. If a franchise uses three retentions (pre-auction), then they will have two RTM during the auction.

A maximum number of 3 Capped Indian players, a maximum of 2 Overseas players and a maximum of 2 Uncapped Indian players needed to be adhered to overall. As far as the auction purse is concerned, in case of three players being retained, the franchise will be down by 33 Crore (15 Crore for the first player retained, 11 Crore for the second and 7 for the third). If two are retained, the purse will be down by Rs 21 Crore. (12.5 Crore for the first player retained and 8.5 Crore for the second). In case of only one player being retained by a franchise, they will be down by Rs 12.5 Crore.

Also, if the player retained is an uncapped player, they will be down by Rs 3 Crore for each uncapped player retained.