The two-time Champions Kolkata Knight Riders have retained four players before the mega auctions. The Men in Gold and Purple were the runners up of the 2021 edition of IPL. Dinesh Karthik who took over the captaincy after Gautam Gambhir left in 2018. KKR failed to qualify for the playoffs in 2019 and 2020. Karthik stepped down as the captain of the squad midway in 2020.
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England’s skipper Eoin Morgan took over the captaincy. But he did not do much with the bat. Morgan’s form with the bat became a problem as KKR were in a huge trouble in the first leg of the season. But in the second leg of IPL, KKR finally started winning matches and eventually reached the finals of the tournament. But the Men in Gold and Purple failed to pick up the trophy as CSK thrashed them by 27 runs.
The 2022 edition of IPL will be a 10-team tournament as two new teams-Lucknow and Ahmedabad have been added. Therefore, a mega auction will take place ahead of the season.
Ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auctions, the eight original franchises will retain a maximum of four players. A maximum of three Indian players can be selected (capped or uncapped) and two overseas players can be retained. The franchises will name their players in order of 1,2,3,4. A franchise can also opt to not retain any player.
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If a franchise retains four players, INR 42 crore will be deducted from its total salary purse of INR 90 crore. If a franchise retains three players, INR 33 crore will be deducted. While for two retentions it would reduce by INR 24 crore and in case of one retention INR 14 crore would be deducted from the purse.
All-rounder Andre Russell was the first player to be retained by the two-time champions. The power hitter has been retained for INR 12 crore. Skipper Eoin Morgan has been ignored due to his poor form.
Pacer Pat Cummins and Lockie Ferguson has also been ignored by KKR. The Knights named mystery spinner Varun Chakraborty as their second retention. Varun has been retained for INR 8 crores.
KKR had a tough time as they had to choose between Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer for the third spot. But the Men in Gold and Purple chose Iyer over Gill. The left arm batsmen has been retained for INR 8 crores.
Spinner Sunil Narine was the last one to be retained. He has been retained for INR 6 crores.
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