All eight franchises will be furiously working towards a strategy for the mega IPL auction, that is scheduled to take place in Bengaluru on 27th and 28th of January.
It will be the biggest auction ever after the first one which was held way back in 2008. Now with all eight original franchises back in the league, the IPL is expected to start a new chapter in this year’s edition.
The retention event took place earlier this month in Mumbai where all the franchises announced the names of their retained players. Perhaps surprisingly, all teams retained at least one player, as even the likes of Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils showed confidence in their former players.
Most of the fans are happy about their respective club’s retentions, while only Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) fans are left scratching their heads over the franchise decision to retain Sarfaraz Khan.
MS Dhoni has been a legend of the game, as no captain is more successful than him in T20s. He has captained CSK to two IPL titles – one less than Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma but have won one Champion League T20 title as well.
Also, the leading run-scorer of IPL history, Suresh Raina is definitely one player that CSK can’t afford to lose, as he has been the match winner for them in every season, so they retained him.
Each franchise can retain a maximum of two foreigners and three Indian stars, so now it will be interesting to see how teams use their RTMs in the auction.
CSK still have two RTMs left, but can use it only on their foreign stars, that is why Ravichandran Ashwin cannot be brought back to Chennai.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) retained only two players, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell from their current lot of players. This means they have three RTMs left, which they can use only for their Indian players, meaning that they cannot use it on the likes of hard-hitter Chris Lynn and all-rounder Shakib al Hasan.
Now it will be interesting to see what will happen in the IPL auction!
