IPL 2018: Rajasthan Royals might not retain Ajinkya Rahane or Steve Smith

The inaugural champions of the Indian Premier League, Rajasthan Royals are currently stuck in a conundrum regarding the players’ retention. After serving a 2-year ban, the high-profile side from the Northern part of India has a lot of options to choose from as far as the retention thing is concerned.

But some reports in Sportstar suggest that the hierarchy at the Royals’ camp are not willing to retain any players. That indeed is a cracker of a news, considering they have some mighty players like the Australian skipper Steve Smith and the ever-dependable Ajinkya Rahane. Both these players have contributed significantly to the club previously.

If these reports are to be believed, their camp is willing to use the Right to Match card and regain these players at the auction. Considering a fact that a staggering Rs. 21 Crore should be spent on both these players to retain them, they are opting to take a chance to keep them in the auction.

List of retained players to be submitted before Jan 4

The IPL Governing Council has already announced that the auctions will be held in Bengaluru on 27th and 28th January. Henceforth, all the teams should be submitting the list of the players who they want to retain on or before 4th January. It’ll be interesting to see if any of the franchises ask for an extension on the deadline date, but that might not happen.

With all due respect to Steve Smith and Ajinkya Rahane, the franchises are unwilling to pay the price fixed by the BCCI. It doesn’t actually sound like a hasty or bad decision from these franchises to keep them in the auction as they might not fetch more than Rs. 8 or 9 Crore.

Rajasthan Royals currently have the privilege to retain players who moved to either Gujarat Lions or Rising Pune Supergiant when their contract was terminated. This means the other option to retain will be James Faulkner and going by his current form, no franchise would be willing to pay him over Rs. 10 Crore.

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