Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) franchise decided to keep hold of their captain Virat Kohli at a whopping amount of Rs 17 crore. This amount made Kohli the highest paid player in the history of the tournament toppling what Delhi Daredevils paid for Yuvraj Singh in 2015. Kohli was the first retention for RCB this year and according to the IPL salary caps — it was supposed to be Rs 15 crore — however, the RCB has paid two more and made him the most valued player in the history of the tournament.
MS Dhoni was also retained by the returning Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and so was Rohit Sharma by the Mumbai Indians in the top salary cap category of 15 crore each — making them the joint second highest paid players in the league.
Only two teams have retained one player each with Rajasthan sticking with Steve Smith and Kings XI Punjab going into the auction with a clean slate having retained Axar Patel.
There were a few surprises as well since Gautam Gambhir and Chris Gayle were not retained by the Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively.
Here is the amount of money left with each franchise after the retentions:
Chennai Super Kings: Rs. 47 crore (80-33)
Players retained: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja
Big names left out: Dwayne Bravo, Brendon Mccullum, Faf du Plessis
Delhi Daredevils: Rs. 47 crore (80-33)
Players retained: Shreyas Iyer, Chris Morris, Rishabh Pant
Big names left out: Quinton de Kock
Kings XI Punjab: Rs. 67.5 crore (80-12.5)
Player retained: Axar Patel
Big names left out: Glenn Maxwell, David Miller
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rs. 59 crore (80-21)
Players retained: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell.
Big names left out: Gautam Gambhir, Manish Pandey
Mumbai Indians: Rs. 47 crore (80-33)
Players retained: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah
Big names left out: Harbhajan Singh, Kieron Pollard.
Rajasthan Royals: Rs. 67.5 crore (80-12.5)
Player retained: Steve Smith
Big names left out: Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Rs. 49 crore (80-31)
Players retained: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan
Big names left out: Yuzvendra Chahal, Chris Gayle
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Rs. 59 crore (80-21)
Players retained: David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Big names left out: Yuvraj Singh, Shikhar Dhawan
