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Detailed low-down

The window for the franchises to retain players for the Indian Premier League 2022 season closed on 30th November 2021. With a total salary cap of INR 90 crore available at the mega auction for each team, the eight franchises were eligible to retain up to 4 players with a maximum of 3 Indians, 2 overseas players, and 2 uncapped Indians.

Each of the eight franchises used the Player Retention option with Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Delhi Capitals (DC), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) opting to retain 4 players each. Rajasthan Royals (RR), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have retained 3 players each while Punjab Kings (PBKS) have retained 2. The PBKS thus have the highest salary purse available with INR 72 crore while Delhi Capitals have least at INR 47.50 to be used at the mega auction.

Of the 27 retained players, 8 are overseas and 4 are uncapped Indians.

Here's the official list of retained players

Rajasthan Royals:

1. Sanju Samson 2. Jos Buttler 3. Yashaswi Jaiswal

"Its extremely difficult to let go two of the best players in the world like Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer. But we also have to look at the player availability, the nature of the injury and the recovery period. So we can't go into the auction in tension." - RR director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara

Kolkata Knight Riders:

1. Andre Russell 2. Varun Chakravarthy  3. Venkatesh Iyer 4. Sunil Narine

"I wear this logo wherever I go and for so many years I have been part of this team and I am really proud at being retained." - KKR all-rounder Andre Russell

Delhi Capitals:

1. Rishabh Pant 2. Axar Patel 3. Prithvi Shaw 4. Anrich Nortje

"It was heartbreaking to lose Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada or Ashwin. I think the IPL needs to take a look at the auction format as franchises groom young players and it becomes difficult to retain them." - DC CEO Parth Jindal

Chennai Super Kings:

1. Ravindra Jadeja 2. MS Dhoni 3. Moeen Ali 4. Ruturaj Gaikwad

"There's no way we could go without Dhoni. He is always my captain. However, its a long way to go as we have the auction and the season to start. It was difficult to let go of someone like Faf (Du Plessis) and Ambati (Rayudu)." - CSK bowling coach L. Balaji

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

1. Kane Williamson 2. Abdul Samad 3. Umran Malik

"Kane has been excellent for us when he was the captain and scored more than 700 runs. The other two were retained because we want to build for the future." - Spin bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan.

"When a player decides to go into the auction because of the price, we have to respect it. But we will try to retain him (Rashid Khan) in the auction." - SRH CEO K Shammi, on letting go Rashid Khan.

Punjab Kings

1. Mayank Agarwal 2. Arshdeep Singh

"Mayank has been great in the four season he was with us and a potential leader. We definitely didn't want to let him go. Obviously, we wanted to retain KL Rahul, but he chose to go into the auction and respect that. It's a player's prerogative."   - Punjab Kings head coach Anil Kumble

Royal Challengers Bangalore:

1. Virat Kohli, 2. Glenn Maxwell, 3. Mohammad Siraj

"We wanted to retain 6-7 players but it would've taken away our flexibility in the auction." - Mike Hesson, RCB's director of cricket 

Mumbai Indians

1. Rohit Sharma, 2. Jasprit Bumrah, 3. Suryakumar Yadav, 4. Kieron Pollard

"We have absolutely gun players in our squad and its heartbreaking to let them go. Hopefully, four of us can form a core and build a solid team." - MI Captain Rohit Sharma.

Mayank set to be Punjab's first pick, Rahul to leave

Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal is all set to be Punjab Kings' first pick on the retention list with KL Rahul set to part ways with the franchise to be part of the a new team. According to Cricbuzz, left arm pacer Arshdeep Singh has been retained by the franchise.

What about the new franchises?

For the two new franchises - Lucknow and Ahmedabad - the rules are pretty much like it was for Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions in the 2016 season. A player draft method would be followed where the two franchises would be able to pick their first-choice three players. With Lucknow being the costlier franchise, they would have the first pick from the pool of players. 

The uncertainty: While it is certain that the franchises will be able to pick three players, there is yet confusion on whether the three players have to be necessarily from the released list of players or could be from a larger pool of players. 

The RCB story

Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell are the confirmed names from RCB sources to be retained for this auction, as reported by Cricket.com a couple of days earlier, and there's a great chance Siraj is retained as well. While RCB sources told us that an agreement couldn't be reached on Yuzvendra Chahal's price, hence the player decided to part ways.

No Rashid for SRH?

According to reports, Rashid Khan wanted to be Sunrisers Hyderabad's first pick, which would have paid him four crores more, but SRH offered him the second retention card to accommodate skipper Kane Williamson as the first pick. But Rashid was not happy about it and according to reports, he is now in talks with the Lucknow franchise. Could be a game-changer but we will wait for final confirmation.

Anything to decode here?

 What do we know so far?

According to a report on ESPN Cricinfo,

Chennai Super Kings dispelled the questions hanging over MS Dhoni's future as a player as the Indian Premier League franchise named their captain among the four retained players for the 2022 edition alongside Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Mumbai Indians only went with two retentions - captain Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah - while Sunrisers Hyderabad decided to retain only Kane Williamson. Rajasthan Royals was another team to retain only one player in captain Sanju Samson while Royal Challengers Bangalore used the new policy to keep former skipper Virat Kohli and all-rounder Glenn Maxwell.

Delhi Capitals also used up their four-player retentions with captain Rishabh Pant, Anrich Nortje, Axar Patel, and Prithvi Shaw. Kolkata Knight Riders also used up all four slots by retaining Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, and Venkatesh Iyer. Punjab Kings decided to go clean slate after skipper KL Rahul parted ways with the team.

Rules?

The rules are in for the 2022 season. You can click here for all the questions. Here, all you need to know is that the eight franchises are allowed to retain a maximum of four players each in the combination of two Indians and two overseas or three Indians and one overseas.

The total purse value for the franchises in this year’s Mega Auction is going to be Rs 90 crore but without any RTM card, which means that the franchises would only be allowed to retain up to four players prior to the Auction.

1. If a franchise retains four players: The first retained player would be paid Rs 16 crore, with second receiving Rs 12 crore, third player with eight crore and the fourth with six crore, which will remove Rs 42 crores out of the existing purse.

2. If a franchise retains three players: The first player would be paid Rs 15 crore, the second Rs 11 crore and the third, Rs 7 crore.

3. If a franchise retains just two players: Two players would be paid at 14 crore and 10 crore respectively. 

4. If a franchise retains just the skipper/one player: The only retained player would earn Rs 14 crore.

And if the player retained is/are uncapped: Irrespective of whether the player is the only retention or just another retention amongst a bigger group, the uncapped player would receive Rs 4 crore. 

The much-awaited day is here.

As the Indian Premier League set its first foot on what promises to be the dawn of a new era in terms of brand positioning with two new teams being added to the stable, we have the second biggest event concerning the tournament. RP-Sanjeev Goenka Group have won the bid for the Lucknow franchise while CVC Capital Partners have won the bid for the Ahmedabad-based team. Once the existing eight teams finalize their list of retentions - remember the retained players will have a say in that as well - the new teams will be called for a draft who will pick players from the existing base.

You will have all the updates concerning the retention day on our Live Blog.