IPL 2018: Rohit Sharma and Pandya brothers are to be retained by Mumbai Indians

Delhi may keep Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer in their stable ahead of IPL auction.

Rohit Sharma has led Mumbai Indians to three IPL titles | BCCI

Three times IPL Champions Mumbai Indians seem to be pretty certain about the retention of their players for the next edition of Indian Premier League. The Mumbai franchise owned by Reliance Industries is in all probability will be retaining ace skipper Rohit Sharma along with Pandya brothers, Hardik and Krunal.

The much talked about IPL auction is scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on January 27 and 28 while the last date of submission for the player retention is January 4.

“Skipper Rohit Sharma is an automatic retention having led the team to three IPL titles. Hardik Pandya is one of the big match-winners and the interesting third retention would be Krunal Pandya,” a senior BCCI official was quoted by PTI as saying on Monday (January 1).

“Krunal being an uncapped Indian can be retained for only Rs 3 crore instead of Rs 7 crore for third capped player. Also Krunal was an exceptional performer last year,” he added.

Earlier, it has been announced that all the IPL franchises will be allowed to retain a maximum of five players through a combination of pre-auction retention and Right To Match (RTM) cards. Hence, it is learnt that the decision to retain Krunal is a well thought out one since it will enable the MI franchise to buy back Kieron Pollard and Jasprit Bumrah with the ‘Right To Match’ cards.

“MI has been the biggest advocate of five retentions. These five are their core group of match winners and it will be surprising if they deviate from this strategy,” the BCCI official revealed.

Besides, Delhi Daredevils are still not quite sure whether they are retaining two players or three. However, the two young guns Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer are certain to be retained.

“If you retain two capped players, you spend Rs 21 crore (Rs 12.5 crore for Player 1 and Rs 8.5 for Player 2) instead of Rs 33 crore for three capped players (Rs 15 crore for Player 1, Rs 11 crore for Player 2 and Rs 7 crore for Player 3),” the official elaborated.

Australian captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner are likely to retained by Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively while Chennai Super Kings are set to retain three of their marquee players – skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, left-handed batsman Suresh Raina and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

It is pertinent to mention here that both Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings were barred from the IPL for the past two seasons owing to corruption and fixing allegations against their respective owners during the 2013 edition.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 02 Jan, 2018

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