Who will get retained by their franchise in this year’s IPL auction?

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IPL trophy

The fever of Indian Premier League (IPL) is about to begin. The auction’s window opens in February and according to the new set of rules and regulations announced by the BCCI on Tuesday, a franchise can retain a maximum of six players.

With withdrawal of Pune Warriors India, we have eight teams fighting for the title in IPL 7. The time of the auction is the most difficult phase for the owners of the teams because it gets really tough to retain just six players and let go others who might be good as well. The other difficulty comes when they retain all the best players which make their purse light during the auction. It has to be a very educated choice which the franchises have to make.

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians

Starting with the defending champions, Mumbai Indians—after winning two tournaments in a row, they would obviously have a tough time discussing about their squad for 2014. The Reliance Industries owned- team is lucky to have legends around it. It is coached by John Wright and Shaun Polloc; Anil Kumble joined the management last year as their mentor.

Young captain of Mumbai Indians (MI), Rohit Sharma had a very good year, in both One Day Internationals and T20. He would be the first choice out of the six players to be retained. His good form began in 2013’s IPL and he maintained it for the rest of the year. Watching Glen Maxwell’s performance in the recent tour of Australia in India, Mumbai Indians wouldn’t want to regret later for losing him. He can bat and bowl as well and can open the innings too if required.

All the West Indians in IPL have always played a crucial role in their respective teams. And we all are aware of the value carried by Keiron Pollard who is an all-rounder. He would surely make the list. The current form of Mitchell Johnson in the ongoing Ashes makes him the most dangerous bowler of the upcoming edition of IPL. And there are the likes of Ambati Rayudu, Pragyan Ohja and many more. Ohja can be included as MI does not have many options for their spin department.

So the five players who can be retained are Rohit Sharma, Glen Maxwell, Keiron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu and Mitchell Johnson.

Chennai Super Kings

Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has looked unchanged in all the seasons. There are only new players added to the squad. It is the only team which has been led by a single captain in all the six seasons of IPL, Mahender Singh Dhoni—the pillar of CSK.

Stephen Fleming has been the most successful coach in the Indian Premier League. He holds the record of two titles and three runners-up position. It might be a good idea for them to experiment a new team for the season instead of continuing the same one. If they choose to continue with the same players then they might struggle during the auction. All the players in CSK are of great value so the management will lose a lot of money in the retention itself.

Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina would be Fleminngs’ obvious choices for retaining.Bravo, Raina and Jadeja being excellent with both bat and bowl and one of the best fielders in IPL. Mike Hussey’s age can come in consideration. The team would want younger players. Mohit Sharma can be trusted bowler so he stands a choice too.

CSK’s choice of five players would be Mahender Singh Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Suresh Raina, Ravinder Jadeja and Mohit Sharma.