IPL 2018 : Virat Kohli becomes most expensive player in IPL history; RCB retain him for Rs 17 crore !!!

Kohli has become the most expensive player in IPL history after being retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 17 crore. RCB made Kohli for yet another season by paying the maximum amount. With that, he’s beaten the previous best when Rising Pune Supergiant had splashed Rs 14.5 crore for Ben Stokes last season.

 Defending champions Mumbai Indians have kept the pillars of their team strong by retaining skipper Rohit alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. With these three match-changing players, the Mumbai support staff have seemingly done a smart job of keeping in their midst players who they can count on in the long run and have the ability to change things dramatically.

Besides the retention of Sarfaraz, another major surprise from the retentions was Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) not retaining captain Gautam Gambhir who had led the team to two IPL titles – in 2012 and 2014 – while becoming a cornerstone into the team. It almost appeared that Gambhir and KKR were similar to what CSK and Dhoni are, but this decision may have changed that notion. Instead, KKR have retained spinner Sunil Narine and big hitter Andre Russell who is back in the scheme of things after serving out a one year doping ban. 

Only two teams have retained one player each with Rajasthan sticking with Steve Smith and Kings XI Punjab going into the auction with a clean slate having retained Axar Patel.