IPL 2014 Auctions: Retention report card of all teams

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Players Retained: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers (THREE)

Kohli and Gayle will keep playing for RCB

The big three are here. No other team could imagine retaining three batsmen of such impact. One who whacks everything in the beginning of the innings, the second who whacks everything in the middle overs and the third who whacks everything at the end.

There could be no better trio that could be retained by this team. The skipper, the ever dominant Gayle, who can effectively throw down a few balls too and the ever consistent de Villiers who can make a good bad look bad with the variety of shots he can play.

A few other effective performers for this team were Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul and Murali Kartik who managed having a few good games, but while the strength of the RCB team remained as their batting, retaining those three is the best choice ever.

Among all those teams that retained players, these three would have been bid for a huger amount than how much is spent on retaining them, thus this being a very wise choice on the part of RCB management to retain Kohli, de Villiers and Gayle.

Rating based on retention: 4.5/5

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Players Retained: Shikhar Dhawan and Dale Steyn (TWO)

Dhawan will be with SRH

Sunrisers Hyderabad was the new face of the last season, and were the team that put up a very tough showing and have quite a successful season, from being a bottom placed team as the Deccan Chargers previously. Main reasons for this success were players like Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn and Karan Sharma, which justifies why the first two were retained.

All through the tournament, they struggled a lot, unable to score huge runs and always managing to script a win in the final tense moments of their game. Their game plan was always to restrict the opposition team to a small score and try and chase that down.

Uncapped Indians, Karan Sharma and Hanuma Vihari contributed a lot to the team by their consistent, often match winning performances while a few like Darren Sammy and Ishant Sharma had their moments too.

However, Dhawan, returning to play after an injury and Steyn, as usual firing at his best were the stand out performers of the team and deserved to be retained among all.

Rating based on retention: 4/5