IPL 2022: 27 players retained, some big names go to auction

A TOTAL of 27 players were retained by the eight existing franchises (two new teams to join next year) of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the deadline for the retention of the players for the 2022 edition ended on Tuesday (30). The franchises spent Rs 269 crore (£27 million) to hold on to these players that include 19 Indians, four of whom are uncapped.

A number of big names were retained by their respective franchises and they include: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians), Jasprit Bumrah (Mumbai), Andre Russell (Kolkata Knight Riders), Glenn Maxwell (Bangalore) and Sunil Narine (Kolkata).

The list also missed some big names and quite a few of them opted to get released so that they could go back to the auction pool. There was a cap of four players that each franchise could retain.

The likes of KL Rahul, Rashid Khan, Shreyas Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan and others were set to go under the auction hammer.

Here is a look at the players that the teams have retained and the major ones released:

Chennai retained: Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad. The major names that the defending champions released are Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Suresh raina and Deepak Chahar.

KKR batter Venkatesh Iyer in action (ANI Photo)

Kolkata retained: Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine. The major names that the 2021 runners-up released are Eoin Morgan who captained the side for a season and half (he replaced Dinesh Karthik midway in the 2020 season), Shubman Gill, Karthik and Lockie Ferguson.

Delhi Capitals retained: Rishabh Pant who captained this season, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw and Anrich Nortje. Some big names that were released are Shreyas Iyer, Avesh Khan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Kagiso Rabada.

Bangalore retained: Virat Kohli who stepped down as the captain this season, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj. The big names that the franchise released are Devdutt Padikkal, Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Mumbai retained: Rohit Sharma who has given them the IPL trophy five times, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard. The major players that the franchise released are Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Trent Boult and Rahul Chahar.

KL Rahul in action (ANI Photo)

Punjab Kings retained: Mayank Agarwal and Arshdeep Singh. It released KL Rahul, their serving captain, Ravi Bishnoi and Nicholas Pooran.

Rajasthan Royals retained: Sanju Samson, their captain, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal. They released Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer.

Rashid Khan of Sunrisers Hyderabad takes a wicket in an IPL match. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Sunrisers Hyderabad retained: Captain Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad and Umran Malik (both of whom are from Jammu and Kashmir). They released former captain David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.