Mahendra Singh Dhoni was back at his ‘spiritual home’ Chennai Super Kings while Royal Challengers Bengaluru retained India captain Virat Kohli during the much-publicised yet predictable Indian Premier League retentions in Mumbai on Thursday.
Mumbai Indians had the league’s most successful captain Rohit Sharma back in their stable and on an evening when most names where predicatable, RCB pulled off a surprise by naming Sarfaraz as their third retention.
Current Australia skipper Steve Smith was Rajasthan Royals’ only pick while his deputy David Warner remains with Sunrisers Hyderabad along with pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
The headline was, of course, the core of CSK returning to Chennai and that was the news that got most people talking. Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina were the team’s second and third choice respectively.
AB de Villiers was RCB’s second retention while they have kept uncapped Sarfaraz for Rs 3 crore while putting Chris Gayle back in the auction pool. And the team took some flak for their decision-making.
One of the notable names not to be retained is long-time Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir, who is now back in the auction pool with West Indians Sunil Narine and Andre Russell being the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise’s two picks.
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