Every cricket fan is eagerly awaiting the much anticipated Mega Auction of IPL 2022 which is set to take place on 12th and 13th of February in Bangalore. This year’s auction will be like never before as the ten franchises will be building their teams almost from scratch.
The addition of two new teams in IPL 2022 called for a mega auction and it brought forward many changes in rules. BCCI announced that each of the 8 core teams will be provided with a maximum of 4 retention from their last year’s squad. The two new teams shall then draft three players each into their squads from the left over players and the remaining players shall head on to the Auctions.
The Retention and drafting process has already been completed and although a majority of the team building will be done in the Mega Auction, some of the teams already look pretty strong even before the auction, courtesy of their smart Retentions/Draft picks.
In this article we take a look at four such IPL franchises who have a very strong team even before the Mega Auction.
1. Chennai Super Kings
There was no doubt that the defending champions had to be in the list. CSK, having lifted the IPL trophy in the 2021 season, had undoubtedly the best squad in the tournament and thus they retained their four best players, who are arguably also the four very best players in the entire league in their respective departments.
CSK’s retentions – Ravindra Jadeja (16 crore), MS Dhoni (12 crore), Moeen Ali (8 crore), Ruturaj Gaikwad (6 crore)
We can see that CSK have one player from every department and their batting lineup already looks pretty strong with the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali and MS Dhoni.
2. Delhi Capitals
Delhi Capitals have probably had one of the smartest retention among all the eight teams. Delhi had a very strong squad in the 2021 IPL which they had built bit by bit over a long period. Giving away so many good players at a go would have been very hard for them but they made the best out of it and made sure to retain their best performers.
DC’s retentions – Rishabh Pant (16 crore), Axar Patel (9 crore, 12 crore to be deducted from purse), Prithvi Shaw (7.5 crore, 8 crore deducted from purse), Anrich Nortje (6.5 crore)
Let us discuss these players one by one briefly. Rishabh Pant, as we know, is one of India’s best shortest innings batters as of date and he is also DC’s captain. Axar Patel and Prithvi Shaw were in great forms last season and Anrich Nortje has consistently been one of the best pacers in the Indian Premier League over the past few seasons. These four players make DC look very strong already.
3. Mumbai Indians
The 5 times IPL champions might have underperformed in IPL 2021 but they know how to get back up from failures and they shall look to do exactly that in the upcoming season. They will surely look to sign some star players in the Mega Auction but the four players that they have retained are terrific as well.
MI’s Retentions – Rohit Sharma (16 crore), Jasprit Bumrah (12 crore), Suryakumar Yadav(8 crore), Kieron Pollard (6 crore)
It need not be mentioned that the above given players are already tested in IPL and are among the top players in the league. Mumbai will look to build a strong team around these 4 core players.
4. Ahmedabad franchise
Ahmedabad are the newest addition to the Indian Premier League but the other teams better not take them lightly for this reason. The CVC capitals owned franchise has made some unbelievable draft picks ahead of the Mega Auction which already makes them one of the favorites this season.
Ahmedabad’s Draft Picks – Hardik Pandya (15 crore), Rashid Khan (15 crore), Shubman Gill (8 crore)
They have chosen Hardik Pandya as the captain of the team and have also included Rashid Khan, who is arguably the greatest T20 spinner of our generation and Shubman Gill who is the most promising youngster of India.
Also Read:- Top 5 Player from India U-19 team who can earn Big Bucks in the Mega Auction