5 Worst retentions by franchises ahead of IPL Auction 2020

The retention lists for IPL 2020 are out and the franchises have taken a lot of questionable decisions as the big names like Chris Lynn, Piyush Chawla, Dale Steyn, Moises Henriques and Sam Curran find themselves without a team before the IPL Auction. While the fans expected these players to be retained, there were a bunch of retained players who deserved to be back in the auction pool.

In the past 12 years of IPL, the fans have seen how the franchises retain a player for a long period of time however, he fails to impress on all the occasions. The franchises could have instead released those players, freed up some of their funds and bought a better player in his place. But, sometimes the team management commits these mistakes and this year as well, it seems like there have been quite a few faults in the retention list.

Here’s a look at the 5 worst retentions by franchises ahead of IPL Auction 2020

1. Mohammed Siraj

It is tough to understand why Mike Hesson and Simon Katich let go of Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer and Dale Steyn but kept the underperforming Mohammed Siraj in the squad. Siraj has played 26 IPL matches in his career where he has taken 28 wickets while leaking runs at an economy rate of 9.20.

His bowling average is 30.28 while he has taken only a solitary 4-wicket haul in his career. In IPL 2019, the right-arm quick had featured in 9 matches, scalping 7 wickets at a hammering economy rate of 9.55. The big hitters of the other teams had taken him to the cleaners yet the Royal Challengers Bangalore have retained him for IPL 2020.

It will be intriguing to see how Mohammed performs in the succeeding edition of IPL because this may be his last chance to prove himself.

2. Pawan Negi

Pawan Negi had come into the limelight in 2015 when he emerged as a match-winner for Chennai Super Kings. The left-arm spinner had a fantastic season in 2017 as well because he picked 16 wickets in that tournament at a miserly economy rate of 6.12. However, Negi’s performances have not been the same ever since.

Earlier, he used to be a part of the Indian T20I squad but nowadays, he is far away from breaking into the Indian team. In IPL 2019, the spin-bowling all-rounder could take only 3 wickets in 7 matches while he conceded runs at an economy rate of 9.13.

His bowling average was of 34 whereas he could score mere 9 runs with the bat in season 12. Thus, the team management of Royal Challengers has astonished its fan base by not releasing Pawan Negi before the auction.

3. Basil Thampi

The winners of the IPL 2016, Sunrisers Hyderabad did a commendable job in the retention list as their player releases were on the money. Yusuf Pathan and Deepak Hooda had not come to the party despite the multiple opportunities they received while Shakib Al Hasan is serving a one-year ban.

However, they committed a minor error by keeping Basil Thampi in the squad. The former Gujarat Lions star has failed to repeat his past performances as in the 2019 edition of IPL, Thampi could not take a single wicket. Besides, he leaked runs at an economy rate of 9.16.

Even in the 2018 edition, the Kerala-based pacer had taken only 5 wickets besides having an expensive economy rate of 11.21. Thus, it would have been better had SRH not kept Basil Thampi in their squad for IPL 2020.

4. Khaleel Ahmed

As the Sunrisers Hyderabad have the likes of Billy Stanlake, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, T. Natarajan and Sandeep Sharma in their pace bowling attack, it made little sense to retain the services of Khaleel Ahmed.

Without a doubt, Ahmed is the premier left-arm fast bowler of the country however, Sunrisers did not really need his presence. Khaleel’s presence will create an unnecessary dilemma for the team management because it is likely that they would be tempted to include a left-arm pacer in the playing XI ahead of the aforementioned right-arm fast bowlers.

Besides, Ahmed has not been up to the mark in IPL as he has conceded runs at an economy rate of 8.59. He has the ability to pick wickets in the death overs but, the Bangladeshi batsmen had destroyed him in the recently concluded T20I series.

5. Kedar Jadhav

The Maharashtra-born all-rounder, Kedar Jadhav had become an integral part of the Indian limited-overs team with his explosive batting performances and wicket-taking abilities. Jadhav joined the Chennai Super Kings in 2018 and he had played a memorable knock for the team on his debut.

But, in 2019, his performances witnessed a dip as he could not maintain the run rate in the middle overs. Jadhav played 14 matches for CSK, scoring 169 runs at a slow strike rate of 95.85. He scored only one half-century but, Kedar could not support the likes of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina in the middle order.

A large portion of the cricket universe expected him to be released by Chennai Super Kings especially because the franchise had bought him at a price of 7.80 Crores INR. Now that the right-handed batsman is not a part of the Indian team, it will be intriguing to see if he can repay the faith of his owners in IPL 2020.