The eight franchises participating in the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) confirmed the players they sought to retain for the 11th season of the T20 League on Thursday. The franchises revealed their retentions as few of them were on the expected lines. Though some picks were obvious, some were surprising.

The maximum number of players that each franchise can opt for is five, in two stages. The first is via the Player Retention (held in Mumbai today), and the second through the Right to Match (RTM) which will take place during the IPL player auction on January 27-28 in Bengaluru.

What’s surprising is some of the players who managed hold on to their teams raised a lot of eyebrows. It was a great comeback for Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after 2 years of a ban from the League. The former side was the first to declare their retentions.

CSK retained its favorite captain MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja whereas Royals retained Australian skipper Steve Smith. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers might have retained themselves but the huge surprise was Sarfraz Khan who wasn’t even picked in the playing XI for most of the games. KXIP retained only one player and he is Axar Patel.

Coming to Mumbai Indians, they had retained the most successful captain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. David Warner and Buvneshwar Kumar were retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Delhi Daredevils continued to keep their faith in the youngsters like Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. KKR too surprised many by going for Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.

Amidst all the hoopla around the much-hyped player retention event, there was one decision which caught everyone’s attention that was of Kolkata Knight Riders not opting for Gautam Gambhir. If the experts are to be believed, the Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise was not too keen to retain a lot of players but the exclusion of Gambhir comes as a big surprise.

However, they have the option of getting him back through Right to Match (RTM) cards. Under the leadership of Gambhir, the Kolkata-based franchise lifted the coveted IPL trophy twice, in 2012 and 2014. He is the one who turned things around KKR with his captaincy, consistent batting performance and selecting certain uncapped Indian and experienced overseas players.

KKR snapped Gambhir in 2011 IPL player auction and since then, he played 122 matches for KKR, Gambhir has scored 3345 runs, with 30 half-centuries. There may be a number of reasons behind KKR leaving Gambhir for the 11th edition. The KKR authorities might have some other ideas in their mind and want to inject some new fresh blood who can bring a new approach to the table.

Though the actual reason was kept secret, the decision clearly indicates that the relationship between KKR and Gambhir isn’t going well and it is a mature thought for both to part ways cordially.

While this decision also suggests that Gambhir who had earlier said that he would like to finish his IPL career with his home-based franchise Delhi Daredevils can actually head back to his home turf.