IPL 2018: Five questionable RTM's used by the franchises

Before the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2018), the franchises were given an option of retaining five players. However, there were some terms and conditions that the IPL Governing Council imposed for the retentions. The teams could keep five players back with them, but in a 3:2 or a 2:3 ratio of ‘retentions’ and ‘RTM’s’. A maximum of 3 Indian capped players or 2 overseas players/uncapped Indian players were allowed to be retained

There were various speculations about the players that would be retained by the franchises. However, all the rumors were cleared when the franchises exercised their RTM cards in the auction on 27th and 28th of January. Although most of the RTM’s used by the franchises were as expected, some of them were quite unexpected and took everyone by surprise.

Here is a look of some of the strangest RTM’s that the teams used:

1. Pawan Negi | Royal Challengers Bangalore | ₹1 Crore

A few eyebrows were raised when RCB decided to use their RTM card for Pawan Negi. In the IPL, he only averages 17.65 with the bat. Also, he picked only 30 wickets in the 41 matches that he played so far. Negi had earlier impressed the Delhi Daredevils bosses who were scouting local talent at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 competition and they signed him for ₹8 crores in 2016. However, due to a few weak performances, the Daredevils had to let him off. Later on, he was brought by the RCB in 2017.

Negi didn’t perform very well for the Challengers in the last season. He only managed to score 144 runs with the bat in the 12 matches that he played at an average of 18. He further picked 16 wickets in the season at an average of 12.13 and economy just over six. The 24-year-old left arm spinner also reduced his base price to Rs 50 lakhs this time. Although RCB had an option of buying him out, they chose not to and used their RTM for him. RCB also surprised everyone earlier when they retained Sarfraz Khan. It would be very interesting to see if Negi will be worth the RTM for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.