Retention in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is an act of supreme faith and methodically sorted amalgam of several factors with consistency of the chosen player being the foremost. For years, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Dwayne Bravo vindicated that trust at Chennai Super Kings (CSK), as did Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Lasith Malinga, Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard at Mumbai Indians (MI) and the vaunted trio of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). But the performance of several retained cricketers this season may question the logic that had led to the franchises going for them. Compounding the miscalculation of course have been fitness concerns of some players but few franchises have also been guilty of not backing players enough.
A good example of how retentions haven’t gone according to plan would be Thursday’s match where two—Axar Patel and Prithvi Shaw—out of Delhi Capitals’ four retained players—Rishabh Pant and Anrich Nortje being the other two—didn’t feature. The prolonged absence of Nortje, who played his first match in almost a month, could be put down to fitness concerns and a lacklustre 14-ball spell conceding 35 runs the last time he bowled. Patel, who missed Thursday’s match due to injury, has great credentials as allrounder but his contribution has been limited to a couple of cameos and four wickets.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, too, are an interesting case study, considering that they have given a long rope to Umran Malik but not to Abdul Samad who has played just two matches this season. Apart from Samad and Nortje, retained player Yashasvi Jaiswal too hasn’t got much game time at Rajasthan Royals.
Backing a player the right way too matters. And KKR have repeatedly flouted that expectation by demoting Venkatesh Iyer before getting him to open again. It was bound to affect Iyer’s performance as his strike rate slipped below 100, prompting KKR to not play him in their last match, against Rajasthan Royals. Joining him on the bench was mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy who has now not been picked for two matches in a row.
Mid-season benching of core players does more harm than good. When Nortje returned to bowl on Thursday, he was a bundle of nerves. And while match figures of 4-0-35-1 may seem decent, it doesn’t match returns expected from a retained player. Nortje, quite obviously, was not thinking long-term as well. “It’s just a relief to be out in the middle, nice to be playing and nice to get into some rhythm,” he said after the match. “You need to be set realistic standards, it’s been a while getting out, playing a game is completely different to just bowling in the nets.”
Past form, be it in IPL or in the international arena, is a major factor in retaining players. But this season has torpedoed that expectation on players such as Pollard, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Jadeja, Kane Williamson, Glenn Maxwell or Mayank Agarwal. The highest scorer last season with 635 runs, Gaikwad got out on 0, 1, 1, 16 and 17 before finally hitting a fifty (73) and 99 but he is nowhere close to what he was in 2021. Agarwal’s runs have taken a hit, Williamson’s strike rate is below 100 and Jadeja has had to relinquish captaincy. Moeen Ali for CSK, Mohammad Siraj for RCB and Pollard for MI too are some of the retained players who haven’t performed to their best. Those disappointments may still not be a patch on the disconcerting loss of runs for batting pillars such as Sharma or Kohli. Without the right kind of support, Bumrah too isn’t the MI spearhead we are used to seeing.
Three names however stand out among the retained players if you are talking value for money. Sunil Narine is an example of a player who, if nurtured properly, can be as good as he was almost a decade back. Repeatedly hauled up for suspect action, Narine has redeemed himself every time and bounced back not just to maintain a mean economy (5.25 this season, best among all bowlers with at least 40 overs) but also be a pinch hitter when required. In his second season as Rajasthan Royals captain, Sanju Samson is proving to be a more dependable bat than his international returns suggest. Be it steadying the innings after an early collapse or giving it momentum towards the end, Samson has been expertly doing everything and more.
But if this IPL season belongs to one retained player, it has to be Jos Buttler. Three centuries and three fifties are statistical proof of Buttler’s unwavering form but what it has done more importantly is ensure that Royals get a good start almost every alternate match. That is the degree of assurance every franchise expects while retaining a player.
