Over the last decade and a half in IPL, there are plenty of players who have seen multiple highs and lows in their careers. One of the biggest achievements of a player is to get retained by a franchise before a mega-auction. This implies that the player is vital to a team’s plans in the long run. However, players who went through that phase have also reached a point where they would have missed the tournament by a whisker. On that note, in this article, we take a look at three players who were once retained before mega auctions but played IPL 2022 at their base price.
1) Ajinkya Rahane (Kolkata Knight Riders) – INR 1 Cr
Retained by Rajasthan Royals before IPL 2014 Mega-Auctions for INR 7.5 Cr
Mumbai cricketer Ajinkya Rahane‘s opportunities have dwindled in recent months. While he was dropped from the Test Team, Rahane has been away from the limited-overs setup for a long time now.
However, at the start of the previous decade, Rahane was an in-demand cricketer. He was retained by RR before a mega-event and he had also enjoyed a great outing with the franchise. However, before IPL 2020, he was traded by RR to Delhi Capitals. Since then, Rahane has not played too much IPL cricket. At IPL 2022 Mega-Auctions, he was picked up at his base price by KKR. Unfortunately, he could not do well in this campaign, too.
2) Manan Vohra (Lucknow Super Giants) – INR 20 L
Retained by Punjab Kings before IPL 2014 Mega-Auctions for INR 4 Cr
Manan Vohra is one of the players who were once retained before mega auctions but played IPL 2022 at their base price. Before IPL 2014 Mega-Auction, Punjab pulled off a surprise by retaining David Miller and Manan Vohra. In the short term, this decision worked well as they reached the finals in IPL 2014.
For Vohra, though, the initial promise never kicked in. He has got very few opportunities in recent years in IPL. For IPL 2022, he was picked by LSG at his base price.
3) Sarfaraz Khan (Delhi Capitals) – INR 20 L
Retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore before IPL 2018 Mega-Auctions for INR 3 Cr
One of the most debated retentions before a mega-auction is that of Sarfaraz Khan by RCB. The batter was preferred over the likes of KL Rahul and Yuzvendra Chahal.
It was an instant disappointment as the Mumbai cricketer could not sustain the pressure. After a stint at Punjab Kings, Sarfaraz played for Delhi in IPL 2022. Surprisingly, even though he was in good form, the opening bid was sufficient for DC to hire the player.
