Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Tuesday (November 30) disclosed the names of players, who have been retained ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. 

As per the retention rules, the teams were allowed to retain a maximum of 4 players (up to three Indians or utmost two overseas), but RCB held on to three players – Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj – from their last year’s squad featuring 28 cricketers. 

Kohli may have stepped down as RCB’s captain after the IPL 2021 season, but the franchise has shown confidence in the batting superstar who has represented them since the league’s inception in 2008. Virat’s retention will cost RCB INR 15crore - which is lower than his last retention rate of INR 17 crore. 

On the other hand, Maxwell got retained as he was the top run-getter in his maiden stint for RCB last season with 513 runs from 14 innings at a strike rate of 144.10. RCB retained Maxwell for INR 11 crore. 

Coming to Siraj, the right-arm fast bowler was exceptional for RCB in the last two seasons and the franchise rewarded him by retaining his services. While Siraj 11 wickets each in the 2020 and 2021 editions while his economy rate was 8.68 and 6.78 respectively. RCB retained Siraj by spending INR 7 crore.

The Bangalore-based franchise would have possibly retained AB de Villiers as well, but the South African batting legend announced his retirement from professional cricket earlier this month.  

Since RCB retained three players, INR 33 crore has been deducted from their purse worth INR 90 crore.