IPL 2020: 5 surprising retentions made by franchises ahead of the auction

The thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is still months away but all the franchises have already started to shape their squads ahead of the player auction which is going to take place in Kolkata on 19th of December 2019. Kolkata will be hosting the auction for the first time in the history of the tournament. The deadline to announce the list of retained and released players was set on 15th of November 2019.

As expected the teams who had a miserable 2019 season released most of the players from their squad whereas the teams which had a successful campaign for the last couple of years retained most of their core cricketers. The three teams who have been performing consistently are Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). These three have retained most of their players who feature in their regular starting eleven.

However, there were a few names, who were astonishingly persisted with. Let us look at the five players who were surprisingly retained by their respective franchises when all were thinking that it was the end of the road for them in the upcoming edition of the tournament.

Kamlesh Nagarkoti (KKR)

The young right-arm fast bowler from India lit up the news when he was giving performances one after another in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2018. He became an overnight young sensation in the Indian cricketing world when he clocked over 150 km/h in one of the matches of the mega event in New Zealand.

Indian cricket fans around the globe started comparing the young gun with the Australian great Brett Lee. He was straightaway picked by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL auction that year. A number of the Under-19 Indian stars were expected to be picked after they won the 2018 World Cup beating Australia.

Everything was going pretty well for Nagarkoti when reality hit him hard. He fractured his foot before the start of the IPL 2018 and was straightaway ruled out of the whole season because of that. Injuries didn’t leave him as he once again missed the next edition of IPL. He hasn’t even played any first-class game for more than a year now so we are not able to figure out the logic behind his retention by Knight Riders.

Gurkeerat Mann Singh (RCB)

After playing for Kings XI Punjab in previous editions, Gurkeerat was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2019 edition of the tournament. A right-handed hard-hitting batsman and a handy spinner also played for the Indian national cricket side on the back of some scintillating performance in the domestic circuit.

Though his miserable form for Team India didn’t help his cause, he was never an IPL material from the very beginning of his tournament career. He was always a second or third fiddle in each side that he represented over the years. His miserable batting averages over the years are the ultimate proof of his big-time failure in the cash-rich event. 

In the last edition of IPL, he featured in only three games for Bangalore scoring 98 runs with an average of 33. He only had one good inning last year when he smashed 65 in the last league match against Hyderabad. With such horrendous statistics under his belt, it is still unknown on what basis did his franchise agreed to retain him.

Shreevats Goswami (SRH)

Few know the fact that Shreevats Goswami of Bengal was the official wicket-keeper of the Indian squad which won the Under-19 World Cup under the captaincy of Virat Kohli. Goswami was a high rated wicket-keeper batsman at that time but couldn’t blossom in the shadow of statesman Wriddhiman Saha.

When it came to the state level in the domestic circuit, Goswami got a limited amount of chances only when Saha was out for the international duty with team India. The Bengal lad’s IPL career is already in tatters. Over the years he has been tossed from one team to another in the player auctions of trades between the franchises.

In 2018, he was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the auction. But with two world-class wicket-keepers in the ranks in the form of Wriddhiman Saha and Jonny Bairstow, the thought process behind retaining Goswami doesn’t make any sense. He will most probably warm the bench throughout the 2020 IPL season.

Karn Sharma (CSK)

Over the past half a decade or so, the importance of a leg spinner or a wrist spinner in any T20 side has been a huge blessing. And that is the main reason every IPL side loves to have at least one specialist leg spinner in their ranks who can give them breakthroughs on any surface in any situation they play in.

But when it comes to the case of Karn Sharma, the scenario is quite different. Yes, he is Indian and he must get lots of chances in the playing eleven being a proven leg spinner in the format. But when you have a player like Imran Tahir in your side, you just cannot better him. Tahir will always play ahead of any other leggie in any side around the world.

Karn Sharma has played only one IPL game last year taking a solitary wicket. And with the likes of Indian greats Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom are miles ahead of Karn in an international experience as well as IPL expertise, it is almost next to impossible for him to feature in the starting line-up.

Mitchell McClenaghan (MI)

The Kiwi left-arm fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan has been a member of the defending champions Mumbai Indians for the past five editions of the tournament. He has been instrumental in the bowling department to assist his side in powerplays as well as in death. The pace bowler has been in and out of the national side from there on but this fact hasn’t affected his selection in the MI playing eleven.

McClenaghan was Mumbai’s go-to bowler from 2015 to 2018 when Rohit Sharma was always using his ability to the fullest. He took 14 plus wickets in each edition of the IPL since his debut barring 2019. But the arrival of West Indian Alzarri Joseph made it hard for the New Zealander to make a comeback in playing eleven in the 2019 edition. He only got the chance after Joseph got injured in the business end of the tournament. Mitchell played only 5 matches in the last edition of IPL.

With world-class fast bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga and Trent Boult in their ranks, we don’t know how Mitchell will fit in the playing eleven. It is a problem of plenty for the defending champions as far as the fast bowling department is concerned.