A last-minute twist in the tale saw Kolkata Knight Riders retain Andre Russell in their list of top-six players on Thursday.

While it had been decided that the IPL-winning captain Shreyas Iyer would be released into the auction pool a few days ago, Russell was being debated upon since his fitness at 36 could prove to be an impediment in the next three years.

The Telegraph had first reported on October 26 that Shreyas wasn’t a sure shot retention for the defending champions.

Shreyas proved to be a “tough negotiator”, as one of the sources put it, demanding not just the highest retention slab of ₹18 crore but various other provisions.

KKR had been toying with the idea of using the Right to Match option to bring Russell back into the fold if they retained five players. Till Wednesday, their top-five retentions were Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine besides uncapped players Harshit Rana and Ramandeep Singh.

However, things took a dramatic turn on Thursday noon when an influential franchise member intervened to keep Russell, who has been part of the team for a decade now. The West Indian shares a very good rapport with the franchise and is considered close to principal owner Shah Rukh Khan.

He has also been part of the core decision-making group and had performed creditably over the years. Once it was decided that Russell would be retained, it meant their auction purse would be trimmed to ₹51 crore.

Rinku was their top retention at ₹13 crore while Varun, Narine and Russell got ₹12 crore each. The uncapped duo bagged ₹4 crore each. Having retained all six players, besides Rajasthan Royals, KKR have sacrificed the RTM option at the auction to buy back players.

As expected, Mitchell Starc, whose match-winning spells helped KKR prevail in Qualifier 1 and the final this season, has also not been retained. Phil Salt, who provided them with explosive starts, has also not been considered.

While KKR refused to let go of Russell, Delhi Capitals have parted ways with their captain Rishabh Pant after several rounds of negotiations late on Wednesday and Thursday morning proved futile. Pant has been with the Delhi franchise since 2016.

They have retained the spin pair of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav along with exciting young South African batter Tristan Stubbs and uncapped Abishek Porel.

It’s confirmed now that KL Rahul will no longer be part of Lucknow Supergiants. They have spent big on Nicholas Pooran — ₹21 crore. Their other retentions are Ravi Bishnoi and Mayank Yadav along with uncapped middle-order batter Ayush Badoni and pacer Mohsin Khan.

As reported in Thursday’s edition, the auction will be intensely competitive following the presence of Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Venkatesh Iyer, Devon Conway, Ishan Kishan and Tim David among others.

At least three franchises — KKR, Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals — will be at the auction in search of a captain and the battle to rope in a Shreyas or a Pant could turn out to be intense. Delhi Capitals too could use the RTM option to regain Pant.

Punjab Kings were the only franchise to not retain a capped player. Their retentions were Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh. They also have the biggest purse remaining — ₹110.5 crore.

Mumbai Indians retained their ‘big four’ — Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah — besides Tilak Varma. Pandya will lead the team for the second successive season.

Bumrah is their top retention at ₹18 crore.

Rohit is their fourth retention at ₹16.3 crore.

“Since I have retired from the format, I think this is the perfect spot for me. The
players who are representing the national team at the highest level should get the preference. That’s what I believe in and I am quite happy with it,” Rohit was quoted as saying.

SRH have retained their core with Heinrich Klaasen at ₹23 crore being the most expensive player so far. Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, and Nitish Kumar Reddy are the other chosen ones.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be available for another season after five-time
champions Chennai Super Kings decided to include him as an ‘uncapped’ player. The IPL has revived a rule, which had been scrapped in 2021, which allows an Indian who hasn’t played international cricket for five years to be considered as uncapped.

There’s talk that CSK may rope in Pant but Ruturaj Gaikwad will remain their captain. They have already spent ₹65 crore in their retentions leaving them with a purse of only ₹55 crore. With such a limited budget, it is unlikely that they will afford Pant who is sure to go in excess of ₹20 crore at the mega auction.

Rajasthan Royals have the lowest retention purse remaining — ₹41 crore — among the franchises after confirming their top-six players — Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer and Sandeep Sharma as the uncapped player. Mumbai Indians and SRH have been left with ₹45 crore each.

RCB have ₹83 crore at their disposal after deciding to rebuild the side from scratch. They have retained only Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal.