IPL Retention: Royals retain only one player for 2018 season

The Rajasthan Royals had their task cut out ahead of the IPL player retention for the 2018 edition of the tournament. They would be making a comeback to the IPL roster after having served their suspension period of two years. In the spot fixing controversy that dented their stakes in the tournament, the team ended up losing its core group.

Now, with the 2018 edition coming up, the Royals knew a new beginning was beckoning them. They had the chance of retaining the players from the squad that had turned up for them in the 2015 edition of the tournament. However, by the look of things, it is apparent that they are in a mood to create a new group altogether.

The Royals only retained one cricketer ahead of the 2018 IPL auctions. All franchises were allowed to retain a maximum of three players. Chennai Super Kings were the other team that served the suspension period along with the RR team. The CSK chose to retain three big names ahead of the IPL 2018 auctions.

But the thinking of the Rajasthan franchise seems to be on a different note than that of the Super Kings. They have retained only Steve Smith. The Australian skipper had led the Rajasthan Royals for half a season in the 2015 edition. Under his leadership, the team had performed exceedingly well.

Also, Smith turned up for the Rising Pune Supergiant in the previous two editions of the tournament. While the 2016 edition was a forgetful one for the RPS camp, they had a dream run under Steve Smith in 2017 edition. Smith, on the personal front, was quite impressive as well. RPS had made it to the finals of the tournament.

Purse left and the course ahead

The Royals shelled out a total of INR 12.5 crore for retaining Steve Smith. Smith will get INR 12 crore as his league fees. This has left the RR camp with a purse of whopping INR 67.5 crore. Also, they can use 3 Right to Match cards at the auctions now out of the three permissible ones. It is very much likely that they will try to get back a few players using the RTM.

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