IPL 2022: The Kerala batsman and captain of Royals in the 2021 season, Sanju Samson, will become the first player to be retained by his franchise, Rajasthan Royals, reported ESPNCricinfo.
It is reported that Samson would be signed by the Royals at INR 14 Cr. The 27-year old batsman was first signed by Rajasthan in 2018 for 8 Cr INR. Even though RR didn't qualify for the playoffs, Samson had a great season in 2021 as he scored 484 runs and won the orange cap.
The report also said that Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, Jofra Archer, and Yashasvi Jaiswal are some other players that the RR is looking to retain. Not a lot can be said about Ben Stokes' availability as he had announced an indefinite break from cricket, but was back in training for the Ashes Test series.
Every IPL team can retain up to four players. The tournament is going to get much bigger and better. Also, there is going to be a mega-auction after three years, which means all the current players will be back in the pool for auction, except four players who would be retained by the franchises.
ESPN, in another report, said that Delhi Capitals will retain Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje. It is a shocker that Shreyas Iyer is not part of the DC plans.
Indian Express reported that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has decided to retain MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and Ruturaj Gaikwad.