IPL 2019: 4 wrong choices of retentions made by the franchises
The month of November was an exciting one for the IPL fans as the franchise brought out the list of players retained and released ahead of the next IPL. Among them were some very interesting choices as the players who were expected to be released found a way to stay and vice versa.
Some teams have taken interesting calls by showing faith in players and retaining them after they did not contribute a great deal last season. These players will consider themselves lucky to stay with their franchises.
However, there is a great chance that the retention of these players will backfire the franchises as they could have replaced these with exciting young talents considering the long-term plans.
Here are 4 wrong choices of retentions made by the franchises ahead of the twelfth edition of the Indian Premier League.
#4 Ben Stokes
The English all-rounder has been the auction king twice in two years after fetching 14 crores from the RPS in 2017 and 12 crores from the Royals in 2018. Stokes would be a good choice of retention on nine out of ten occasions but not this time around.
England play an ODI series against Pakistan in early May and hence Stokes will be leaving early. Also, at 12 crores, Ben Stokes is clearly overpriced and the Royals could have considered releasing him and buying him back at a cheaper price.
Stokes had a poor last season and did not live up to the expectations of the Rajasthan Royals fans. In his IPL career, Stokes has played 25 games scoring 512 runs at a strike rate of 134 and picked 20 wickets.
All in all, the retention of Ben Stokes is not the wisest choice as the Royals are spending a big chunk of their funds on a player who is not available for the entire season.