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.

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.

A lot of money has been already spent on the players as the franchises have shown a lot of faith in their retained list of players. The man in currency at the moment i.e. India captain Virat Kohli expectedly emerged the most expensive retained player. The Royal Challengers Bangalore held on to their most famous player for Rs 17 crore, breaking the Rs 15 crore barrier for Player 1.

Meanwhile, India’s most successful captain MS Dhoni returned to his second home Chennai Super Kings. He has been retained for the price of Rs 15 crore. When he was in the players draft a couple of years, Rising Pune Supergiant paid him a whopping amount of Rs. 12.5 Crore.

No wonder the MI franchise retained him for Rs. 15 Crore after his recent exploits in a T20I against Sri Lanka. He brings more value as a captain to the team as they will look to defend the title in 2018.

David Warner, who led Sunrisers Hyderabad to the coveted title in 2016 has been retained for Rs. 12 Crore much better than what he earned in the previous seasons.

Australian skipper Steve Smith was again a great choice to retain by the returning franchise Rajasthan Royals. His stakes have increased since his last stint with Rising Pune Supergiant when he was paid only Rs. 5.5 Crore.

This time around he has been retained by paying a king-sized amount of Rs. 12 Crore.