IPL 2018: 5 Most expensive player retentions

The much-awaited player retention event for the next edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) was held on Wednesday. The franchises revealed their retentions as few of them were on the expected lines. But some of the players who managed hold on to their teams raised a lot of eyebrows. While the returning franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were welcomed during the event, the former side was the first to declare their retentions.

CSK retained the favourite son of the country MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja whereas Royals surprisingly released Ajinkya Rahane going for Australian skipper Steve Smith. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers might have retained themselves but the huge surprise was Sarfraz Khan who wasn’t even picked in the playing XI for most of the games. Even Kings XI Punjab went with Axar Patel despite having the likes of David Miller, Hashim Amla and Glenn Maxwell.

Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya also remained with the MI Paltan as David Warner and Buvneshwar Kumar were retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Delhi Daredevils continued to keep their faith in the youngsters like Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. Kolkata Knight Riders too surprised many by going for Andre Russell and Sunil Narine thereby letting go off Gautam Gambhir. A lot of money has been already spent on the players as the franchises have shown a lot of faith in their retained list of players. Here we bring to you the 5 most expensive players retained:

1. Virat Kohli – RCB: Rs. 17 Crore

The Indian skipper Virat Kohli has now become the costliest player ever in the history of the cash-rich T20 league. He has been paid a whopping amount of Rs. 17 Crore by the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise. He was retained with a contract worth Rs. 15 Crore in 2016. There was no surprise when Virat was retained and the amount paid is pretty modest by his standards.

Virat was in the form of his life in 2016 as he slammed four centuries in the season. He shattered and created records of his own scoring almost 1000 runs during the season. Currently, he is one of the leading run-scorers in the history of the tournament with 4418 runs in 149 matches. His strike rate of 129.82 also proves he is amazingly consistent to go with the average of 37.44. He will surely look to improve on the statistics as he is once again in the form of his life this time around.