IPL retention: MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli win hearts as superstar duo take paycuts ahead of mega auction

The IPL retention list was released on Tuesday evening (November 30). The eight existing IPL franchises released their set of retained players as many established names found themselves being retained, by their respective teams, whereas some big names have been released and will proceed to the mega auction, to be held in early 2022. (The two new teams will also get a chance to pick three players each prior to the auction).

While MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli and undoubtedly two of the biggest names in IPL, the superstar duo took paycuts in order to boost Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) purse, respectively, and help rebuild in the mega auction. For the unversed, Dhoni agreed to be the second-retention choice for CSK, for 12 crores (120 million), whereas all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was retained as the Yellow Army's top-choice player, for 16 crores (160 million).

On the other hand, Kohli remained the top-choice for RCB in their retention list, however, he chose to have a pay cut of 2 crores (being retained for 15 crores, i.e. 150 million) before the mega auction.  

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Both Dhoni and Kohli have been IPL legends. While the CSK skipper has led the Men in Yellow to four IPL titles, he has amassed 4,746 runs in 220 matches along with being the wicketkeeper with most dismissals overall (161). On the other hand, the 33-year-old Kohli has led RCB to the 2016 IPL final and is the leading run-getter in the tournament-history, with 6,283 runs in 207 games. 

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Here's the list of retained players:

CSK: Jadeja (16 cr), Dhoni (12 cr), Moeen Ali (8 cr), Ruturaj Gaikwad (6 crore)

KKR: Andre Russell (INR 120 million, INR 160 million to be deducted from purse), Varun Chakravarthy (INR 80 million, INR 120 million to be deducted from purse), Venkatesh Iyer (INR 80 million), Sunil Narine (INR 60 million)

SRH: Kane Williamson (INR 140 million), Abdul Samad (INR 40 million), Umran Malik (INR 40 million)

MI: Rohit Sharma (INR 160 million), Jasprit Bumrah (INR 120 million), Suryakumar Yadav(INR 80 million), Kieron Pollard (INR 60 million)

RCB: Kohli (INR 150 million), Glenn Maxwell (INR 110 million), Mohammed Siraj (INR 70 million)

DC: Rishabh Pant (INR 160 million), Axar Patel (INR 90 million, INR 120 million to be deducted from purse), Prithvi Shaw (INR 75 million, INR 80 million to be deducted from purse), Anrich Nortje (INR 65 million)

RR: Sanju Samson (INR 140 million), Jos Buttler (INR 100 million), Yashasvi Jaiswal (INR 40 million)

PBKS: Mayank Agarwal (INR 120 million, INR 140 million to be deducted from purse), Arshdeep Singh (INR 40 million)