Rajasthan Royals have decided to retain captain Sanju Samson ahead of the IPL mega auction, sources told NDTV on Friday. The wicketkeeper-batter had a brilliant IPL 2021, scoring 484 runs in 14 matches at an average 40.33. He scored the runs at a strike-rate of 136.72 with one century and two fifties to his name.
All the eight existing teams have time till November 30 to announce the list of players they would retain. These teams will be allowed to retain a maximum of 4 players. Two of the retained names can be of overseas players.
According to a report on ESPNCricinfo, the teams are likely to get a purse of Rs 90 crore in the upcoming IPL auction.
The report further stated that the two new franchises - Lucknow and Ahmedabad, can pick three players before the auction after the retentions are over. The combination for these two teams would be two Indians and one overseas player.
Samson had sterling IPL 2021 in the UAE but RR failed to qualify for the playoffs after finishing seventh in the IPL points table.
Rajasthan won just five matches out of 14 games, having lost a couple of really close games.