IPL 2019: 5 players who were not expected to be retained by their teams, but were retained anyway

#2 Ben Stokes

Ben Stokes was one of the high-profile names who was expected to be released

Ben Stokes has failed to complete a full IPL season in the last two seasons owing to his international commitments. He was the costliest player in the previous auction but couldn't emulate his RPS performance with RR.

Stokes is expected to miss a part of the IPL as the World Cup is scheduled next year, and RR were accordingly expected to release him to the auctions.

However, they have decided to keep him for the upcoming season.