Rashid Khan of Sunrisers Hyderabad, KL Rahul of Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians’ Hardik Pandya are among the top names who haven’t been retained for the next three seasons by their IPL franchises. The retention deadline expired at 5pm on Tuesday.
That the trio were likely to be released by their respective franchises had been reported by The Telegraph on November 27. Rashid, considered among the best spinners in the game’s shortest format, wanted to be the No.1 retained cricketer. The franchise, however, awarded that privilege to their captain Kane Williamson for Rs 14 crore.
Sunrisers have also retained two uncapped talented youngsters, Jammu and Kashmir’s fast bowler Umran Malik and middle-order batsman Abdul Samad. That David Warner wouldn’t be retained following last season’s differences over captaincy was known.
Both Rashid and Rahul are reportedly on the radar of the Lucknow franchise, which will make its debut in IPL 2022. Rahul is tipped to lead the as-yet unnamed franchise, owned by Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG Ventures Ltd.
There seems to be a twist in the Mumbai Indians retention list with Suryakumar Yadav making it along with Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard. Neither Hardik nor Ishan Kishan has been retained since Surya seemed to have been preferred over the duo.
While uncertainty over Hardik’s bowling seems to have been the issue, Ishan could be considered unlucky to have missed the cut. Kolkata Knight Riders have released opener Shubman Gill while retaining Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Narine. With Eoin Morgan also released, the franchise will look to pick him again during the mega-auction.
Delhi Capitals haven’t kept Shreyas Iyer and he will be in demand at the mega-auction. Mumbai Indians are learnt to have shown interest in his addition to the squad.
With Rahul unwilling to continue, Mayank Agarwal has been Punjab Kings’ top choice among those retained. Uncapped Arshdeep Singh is the other player. Mayank has proved his credentials as an opener in the last edition and seems to have got a fair deal. With head coach Anil Kumble stamping his approval, it’s likely that Mayank will lead the side.
Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell were always going to be retained by RCB but the surprise has been Mohammed Siraj. Among those missing out are Devdutt Padikkal, Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal.
There’s talk that Chahal didn’t agree to the No. 3 retention since he would have got only Rs 7 crore. As expected, defending champions Chennai Super Kings retained Ravindra Jadeja, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Moeen Ali with Faf du Plessis excluded. Jadeja is their No.1 retained player worth Rs 16 crore, ahead of Dhoni, and could take over as captain once Dhoni steps down.
The two new franchises — Lucknow and Ahmedabad — can now pick three players each from the unretained pool. They have time till December 25 to finalise their choices.
