IPL 2018: 5 Surprising Retentions made by franchises

The 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is still four months away from commencement, but the excitement vibes are already spreading. All the teams announced the players they have decided to retain for IPL 2018 before the auction. There were some jaw-dropping calls made by the franchises. But a lot of aspects on the financial and managerial aspects were taken into consideration before arriving at the names.

The Mumbai Indians will be entering the eleventh edition as the defending champions. They decided to go with Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah, leaving out some big names like Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya. Nevertheless, it’s a choice which cannot be debated as each team only gets to retain a maximum of 3 players.

The returning sides Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings made some obvious choices as well. Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina were retained by Chennai and Steve Smith was the one sole person who will continue with Rajasthan. Barring the obvious choices, there were some really surprising and debatable picks made by franchises. Here’s the list of five players, whose retention raised a lot of eyebrows.

1. Sarfaraz Khan (Royal Challengers Bangalore) – 1.75 crore

No doubt, this lad is one of the most talented youngsters in the country. But no one pinned their hopes on Sarfaraz Khan to get retained. Royal Challengers Bangalore decided to place their bet on this young uncapped player for INR 1.75 crore.

This indeed is the biggest moment of the youngster’s career and each and every Indian would love to see him excel.  But one thing we can’t deny is his retention was surprising. He missed the 10 season after suffering a serious injury just before the tournament began, but he will be ready to go all guns blazing this time around.