(Reuters) – Indian Premier League (IPL) side Royal Challengers Bangalore retained the services of Indian batsman Virat Kohli for the 2022 season while current champions Chennai Super Kings kept faith with MS Dhoni as the window closed on Tuesday.
Kohli was retained for a fee of 150 million Indian rupees ($2 million) while his team also signed on Mohammed Siraj and Australia’s Glenn Maxwell ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, leaving them with 570 million Indian rupees to spend in the auction.
Each team will have a total salary cap of 900 million Indian rupees to spend at the auction, minus a retention deduction.
Among other big names remaining with their teams ahead of the next edition of the Twenty20 tournament were Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians), Rishabh Pant (Delhi Capitals), Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals) and Kane Williamson (Sunrisers Hyderabad).
Each of the eight franchises were allowed to retain up to four players with a maximum of three Indians, two overseas players and two uncapped Indian players.
Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai opted to retain four players each while Rajasthan, Bangalore and Hyderabad retained three.
Punjab Kings held on to two players — Mayank Agarwal and Arshdeep Singh — leaving them with the highest salary purse of 720 million Indian rupees to spend at the auction ahead of the 2022 season.
Delhi have the least at 475 million Indian rupees.
The next edition will have two new teams — Lucknow and Ahmedabad — with the competition featuring 74 matches where each side plays seven home and seven away games.
Retained players
Chennai: Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Delhi: Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje.
Kolkata: Andre Russell, Varun Chakaravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine.
Mumbai: Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard.
Punjab Kings: Mayank Agarwal, Arshdeep Singh.
Rajasthan: Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj.
Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Umran Malik.
($1 = 75 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
