This season, like every retention year, is full of shocks, but none are more notable than the players the kolkata Knight Riders have kept. The players released by the reigning champions are equally shocking: Phil Salt, venkatesh Iyer, Mitchell Starc, and captain Shreyas Iyer. The last player mentioned was chosen over Shubman Gill the previous time. Other places also had some shocking calls.
One of the day's major takeaways is the departure of rishabh pant from the delhi Capitals. Despite last-minute efforts, the wicketkeeper batter has reportedly remained steadfast in negotiations with the team owners, GMR and JSW, according to Cricbuzz. The discussions were at a standstill. Although the Capitals still have the potential to use their Right To Match (RTM) options on pant, there is still a chance that he may return to Delhi.
There has been much speculation that pant will be pursued by the chennai Super Kings, one of the teams that most players favor. Though the likelihood is slim, it may occur in the future. The Super Kings now have just INR 55 crore after spending INR 65 crore on five retentions. They probably cannot afford pant since the wicketkeeper batter, who is also a captaincy candidate, is anticipated to be fiercely pursued by teams with far larger budgets, such as the punjab Kings (INR 110.5 crore), royal challengers Bengaluru (INR 83 crore), and lucknow Supergiants (Rs 69 million).
Where exactly the talks between pant and the delhi Capitals' management broke down is still unknown. pant celebrated his birthday in dubai and went there to meet with a team owner. He is thought to have proposed yuvraj singh as a mentor during talks; this idea was reportedly placed in cold storage for the time being but wasn't completely rejected.
However, things got out of hand at one point, especially following Pant's social media post. It is believed in the DC camp that pant could have been approached by other teams, most likely with the prospect of a large salary. However, it is reasonable to assume that DC will lose Pant's bid. They still have feelings for him.
Where exactly the talks between pant and the delhi Capitals' management broke down is still unknown. pant celebrated his birthday in dubai and went there to meet with a team owner. He is thought to have proposed yuvraj singh as a mentor during talks; this idea was reportedly placed in cold storage for the time being but wasn't completely rejected.
However, things got out of hand at one point, especially following Pant's social media post. It is believed in the DC camp that pant could have been approached by other teams, most likely with the prospect of a large salary. However, it is reasonable to assume that DC will lose Pant's bid. They still have feelings for him.
Returning to the Knight Riders, the most notable aspect is an unexpected INR 12 crore surplus. In addition to INR 4 crore each for uncapped Harshit Rana and Ramandeep Singh, the real payoff for their six retentions is just INR 57 crore to Rs 13 crore for Rinku Singh, Rs 12 crore each for varun Chakaravarthy, sunil Narine, and Andre Russell. Their six retentions would have cost the auction purse INR 69 crore. They will only have Rs 51 crore at the auction, so they cannot spend the excess money there, but they may utilize it for other things.
The mumbai Indians' decision to maintain Tilak varma instead of Ishan Kishan, the indian keeper-batter who even made the world cup roster, is another noteworthy aspect of the retentions story. The decision may become clearer after a brief review of the statistics. Tilak was purchased for INR 1.7 crore in 2022, while Ishan was purchased by the franchise for a substantial INR 15.25 crore following a resolute and intense bid during the auction. Their results over the previous three seasons were quite close, despite a value differential of more than INR 13.5 crore: Ishan amassed 1,192 runs in three seasons (44 innings), whereas Tilak managed 1,156 runs in only six less innings (38).
Even though the mumbai Indians were contemplating players like Nehal Wadehra, Anshul Kamboj, Naman Dhir, and even piyush chawla, they shocked IPL viewers by not going with a sixth retention. According to reports, they made this choice because they wanted to be flexible for the next auction. To put a lot of conjecture to rest, MI also declared that hardik pandya will continue to be their captain for the season.
Apart from Shreyas, Ishan and pant, othern big names released were Jos Buttler, KL Rahul, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, David Warner, Mohammed Shami, David Miller, Phil Salt, Mitchell Starc, venkatesh Iyer, Marcus Stoinis, Quinton de Kock, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneswhar Kumar, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, R Aswhin, Glenn Maxwell, Faf du Plessis, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, sam Curran, Liam Livingstone and Jonny Bairstow among others.
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