The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 will witness a mega auction, and franchises are working hard to finalise the list of players they want to retain and release. It is expected that many changes will occur in every franchise, especially considering the retention rules.
Notably, each franchise will be allowed to retain up to four players from their IPL 2021 squads. This can feature up to three Indian players or a maximum of two overseas players. However, the two new franchises – Ahmedabad and Lucknow – will be allowed to pick three players from the pool of un-retained players ahead of the auction.
Quite a few teams will struggle to find players they want to retain ahead of the 2022 auctions as every franchise has too many star cricketers. Delhi Capitals (DC) will also experience the same as they have many match-winners on their side.
But DC spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has hinted that he and Shreyas Iyer are unlikely to be retained for the upcoming fifteenth season of the cash-rich league. While analysing IPL’s mega auction retention process, Ashwin, on his YouTube channel, predicted that Capitals will not retain him as well as Iyer, who had captained the team in the 2020 edition.
“Shreyas isn’t there, I think. I am not there. So, someone else would have to come. I would have known if I were taken,” said Ashwin.
Ashwin joined the Delhi-based franchise ahead of the 2019 season after being traded for left-armer Jagadeesha Suchith from Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings). In the 28 innings for DC, Ashwin picked up 20 wickets at an economy rate of 7.55.
On the other hand, Iyer joined Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils) in the 2015 player’s auction for INR 2.6 crores. The Mumbaikar was retained by the franchise in the 2018 IPL auction and was announced the captain a few days later.
Iyer led the team to playoffs in 2019, which was DC’s first appearance in the knockout stage in seven years. In the subsequent season, Iyer captained DC to the final, where they lost to Mumbai Indians (MI).
