MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma among players retained by IPL teams ahead of 2022 auction
MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, Sunil Narine are some of the big names retained by their respective Indian Premier League (IPL) teams ahead of the mega auction to be held in 2022 with the competition also set to expand to 10 teams.
The deadline for teams to announce their list of players retained on November 30 and plenty of big names such as Rashid Khan from Afghanistan and KL Rahul are also in the mix of players to be auctioned along with Shreyas Iyer.
The 2022 IPL mega auction will witness former IPL captains Rahul and David Warner along with others in Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar and Shubham Gill, who are going to be available for teams to buy.
The four-time IPL champions including winners in IPL 2021, Chennai Super Kings have announced that they are retaining the legendary captain Dhoni along with young Indian batsmen Ruturaj Gaikwad, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and England all-rounder Moeen Ali.
India wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant, all-rounder Axar Patel, opening batsman Prithvi Shaw and South Africa fast bowler Anrich Nortje are among the four players who have been detained by Delhi Capitals. Rishabh Pant was the captain for Delhi throughout IPL 2021.
Mumbai Indians announced that they are going ahead with their regular captain Rohit Sharma who has been a multiple time title winner with them, along with fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, middle-order batsman Suryakumar Yadav and West Indies cricketer Kieron Pollard. Mumbai have let go of their longtime favourite Hardik Pandya who has been under the cloud of injury following which he has not bowled enough for both Mumbai Indians and the Indian cricket team.
Kolkata Knight Riders announced that they were retaining star all-rounder Andre Russell along with senior player Sunil Narine, while mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer featured in the list of retained players for the two-time title winners.
Punjab Kings have let go of their regular captain KL Rahul and have retained only two players in opening batsman Mayank Agarwal along with left-arm fast bowler Arshdeep Singh.
The winners of the inaugural edition of IPL, Rajasthan Royals, announced retaining their regular captain Sanju Samson along with English wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler and young opening batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal.
While Virat Kohli will not be leading Royal Challengers Bangalore anymore in the IPL, he has been retained by RCB along with Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and India fast bowler Mohammed Siraj. It must be noted that Australia have most number of players featuring in IPL every single year and Maxwell is the only player from Down Under who has been retained by any IPL team.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, who will be looking to rebuild their entire squad after having a terrible season on the field in IPL 2021, have retained Kane Williamson along with uncapped Indian players Abdul Samad and Umran Malik. As expected, David Warner has been released by the franchisee and he will be up for grabs in the IPL 2022 mega auction.