IPL Retention Takeaways: Have RR overestimated Dhruv Jurel’s value?

Did RR make a blunder by splashing INR 14 crore on Jurel?

Rajasthan Royals (RR) ended up retaining six players — this was not a surprise. What left pretty much everyone bewildered was the amount they paid to Dhruv Jurel, which was a whopping INR 14 crore. RR ended up retaining Jurel not only over Jos Buttler, but also other Indians in Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Avesh Khan.

Being both young and one of the most promising talents in the country, Jurel is a great retention. But did RR end up overestimating the 23-year-old’s value, and thereby overpaying him?

As someone with limited T20 experience and middling IPL numbers to his name, Jurel would most certainly have not gone for 14 crore at the auction. Even Ishan Kishan, who at the age of 22 had a 500-run season under his belt, went for 15.25 crore at the 2022 mega auction. 

RR might, hence, have ended up saving between 4-6 crore had they decided to use the RTM on Jurel instead of retaining him. Plus, having already retained four other batters apart from Jurel, RR might just have been better off retaining someone like Chahal instead. 

Another reset for Punjab, but will it work?

Certainties in life: death, taxes and Punjab Kings entering a new cycle with a clean slate. 

With Ricky Ponting appointed head coach, the Kings have gone pretty extreme this time around, retaining just two players, both uncapped (Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh). They will hence enter the auction with a whopping 110.5 crore in their kitty.

Now, with all that money, Punjab can bully every other side and exit the IPL 2025 auction as clear winners. But will they make the best use of the truckload of money they have at their disposal?

There have been multiple mini and mega auctions in the past where PBKS had all the money to spend but somehow managed to squander the advantage. 

Will things be different under Ponting?

Pant gone, but DC have enough left-handers they can target

So, the rumours were indeed true. Rishabh Pant’s association with the Delhi Capitals is over. In many ways, it’s a body blow to the franchise: they’ve lost their skipper, the nucleus of their batting and someone who was considered the face of the franchise.

But the good news is that, from a cricketing perspective, there are plenty of left-handers DC can target in the auction and replace Pant with.

Both Venkatesh Iyer and Ishan Kishan can’t be RTM’d by their respective franchises, so DC will certainly be eyeing both those players. Nitish Rana is available, too, as is someone like Nehal Wadhera. If we are to look at foreigners, there is someone like David Miller the franchise can replace Pant with. 

This is just one solution; the franchise can balance out the team in many other ways.

Mind you, DC will enter the IPL 2025 auction with a purse of 73 crore. So, despite losing Pant, they are still in a pretty good position overall.

No shortage of tier Indian one seamers in the market

Punjab have opted not to retain Arshdeep Singh. Gujarat Titans have let go of Mohammed Shami and Royal Challengers Bengaluru have chosen to retain Rajat Patidar over Mohammed Siraj.

What does this mean? It means that there’ll be a ton of tier one Indian seamers up for grabs at the auction next month. 

The catch here is that all these aforementioned names can be RTM’d by their respective franchises, so there could be potential heartbreak coming the way of a few franchises. At the same time, with a team like Punjab having a fat purse, some of these names could easily be snatched away forcefully by the Kings.

There are also plenty of other quality Indian speedsters up for grabs. Avesh Khan, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan and Mukesh Kumar to name a few. 

Mumbai Indians keep all their big guns 

Most of us were waiting for all hell to break loose at Mumbai, anticipating at least one of the ‘big four’ - Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah - to not get retained due to budget constraints.

But the franchise somehow did the ‘unthinkable’ and retained each of the four while also keeping Tilak Varma. They even convinced Rohit to get retained for a lower amount than each of the other three, with Bumrah being the top retention (18 crore).

So, no controversies, but there is, however, a con. Which is MI will head into the auction with just INR 45 crore, the joint second-lowest purse among all ten teams. 

Considering the franchise goofed up a bit at the 2022 mega auction, they will have to be really careful about how they spend the money this time around. They’ll need to be really smart and efficient in order to build a formidable team from here, given they can easily be bullied by other franchises with bigger purses.

Chennai Super Kings face an RTM headache

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) got what they wanted: MS Dhoni as an uncapped player, that too for just INR 4 crore. 

In all, the Super Kings made five retentions, leaving them with a purse of 55 crore heading into the auction. 

The headache CSK face now is: who do they use the remaining RTM on? 

The franchise have only one RTM remaining, meaning they can realistically bring back only one of Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Daryl Mitchell, Maheesh Theekshana, Mustafizur Rahman and Tushar Deshpande. 

CSK are spoilt for choices, no doubt, but they are gonna have to make a pretty brutal call. 

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