IPL 2022: Here Are The Players Retained & Released By The Franchises Ahead Of Mega Auction

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On November 30, it has finally been confirmed which franchises are retaining which of their players ahead of the IPL 2022 Mega Auction. Earlier, an IPL official stated that this might be the last mega auction in years to come & the franchises will now have to work on creating their ecosystem of players. 

There were some key players who were not retained & released. Let's take a look at the list of players who were retained and some key important players who were released. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad have retained Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad & Umran Malik.

Rashid Khan was not retained as he wanted to be the first retention for SRH, however, Sunrisers wanted Kane Williamson as their first retention choice. David Warner was also not retained, which was not a surprising move, since he was removed from the captaincy midseason and was benched. 

Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals have retained Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler & Yashavi Jaiswal.

It may seem shocking to some fans that the RR franchise released Jofra Archer & Ben Stokes. Although it's understandable due to the retention rules, Ben Stokes & Jofra Archer wouldn't have agreed at an amount of 8 crore or 6 crore, if Buttler is getting 12 crores. 

Punjab Kings

Punjab Kings have retained Mayank Agarwal & Arshdeep Singh. 

KL Rahul wanted to leave the franchise as the reports were stating for the past few days, and hence he wasn't retained. Mohammad Shami could've been retained but the franchise must be planning on getting him back at the auction for a lesser price. 

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians have retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard & Suryakumar Yadav.

Ishan Kishan was released and it would have been a tough call for MI - to invest in a future player or a future captain, and they went with the latter. Kieron Pollard has been with MI for the last 11 years.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders have retained Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer & Sunil Narine. 

The only surprise there is Shubman Gill's release but our best guesses are clueless here and maybe KKR have made different strategies that don't require a batter like Gill. Nitish Rana being released was a personal disappointment for me, given how consistent he has been for the franchise. 

Delhi Capitals 

Delhi Capitals have retained Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw & Anrich Nortje. 

Shreyas Iyer was released as he wanted to captain the side but the DC franchise wanted Rishabh Pant in that role. Other than that, DC had a binary choice between other options - Axar or Ashwin, Shaw or Dhawan & Nortje or Rabada - and they went with the younger options which affirms long term planning from Delhi Capitals.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore have retained Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell & Mohammad Siraj.

RCB's highest wicket-taker Yuzvendra Chahal denied being the 3rd/4th retention choice for the team and decided to try out at the auction for a better price. 

Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings have retained Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali & Ruturaj Gaikwad.

CSK has been a close family for a long time now and they'd be sad to let go of the players and would most probably try to get them back at the auctions. There were no surprises apart from a small yet another gracious act by 'Thala Dhoni', who refused to be the #1 retention choice and hence Ravindra Jadeja was retained for 16 crores.

Over the next month (December) the two new franchises - Lucknow (owned by RPSG group) & Ahmedabad (CVC Capital) will be allowed a purse of Rs. 33 crore to sign three players before the Mega Auction 2022. The breakdown would be Rs. 15 crores, Rs. 11 crore & Rs. 7 crores. 
Mega Auction for IPL 2022 and ahead would be held in the first week of January 2022.