IPL Auctions 2018: All you need to know on the Right to Match cards and how franchises should use them

The IPL auction is all set to get underway in the coming weekend giving franchises a chance to pick players from a pool of 578 players in total. From the business point of view, the main attention will be on players expected to go for a hefty sum of money. However, from the tactical point of view, the focus will also be on how the franchises handle their highly coveted RTM cards. What is RTM? [caption id=“attachment_4321061” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Despite his waning form, Chris Gayle might still be in RCB’s RTM plans. AFP[/caption] Right to Match cards or simply RTM cards give a franchise an option to have a say over other franchises in picking a player that belonged to that particular franchise before being released for the auction. For example, let’s say a franchise has made a final bid for a player for X amount of rupees. According to RTM card rules, the franchise that owned the player previously can get him for that exact amount, over the franchise that actually won the bid. How to use it? The more RTM cards that a team has the more players it can retain. But there is a restriction over the number of cards a franchise can have and the category of players that they can select from. According to the retention rules, a team could have retained a maximum of five players, including RTM card options. And those five players had to be a combination of at the most three capped Indian players, two uncapped Indian players and two overseas players. After the retention period, it turned out that franchises retained at least one player with majority opting for two and some for three. So most franchises now have at least two RTM cards left. And the kind of players that they can use those RTMs on now depends on the kind of players they have retained. For example, if a team has retained three capped Indian players, it can use their RTM on a maximum of two uncapped Indian players or two overseas players given the combination restrictions. It can even opt for one uncapped and one overseas player. Apart from this, there are further possibilities of using the RTM cards. Let us now have a look at how each of the eight franchises stand with their RTM cards, how they can use them and who they are probably going to use it on in the auction going to be held on 27 and 28 January at Bengaluru. Mumbai Indians Players retained: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah RTM cards left: 2 Overseas players retainable: 2 Capped Indian players retainable: 0 Uncapped Indian players retainable: 2 Budget left: Rs 47.5 crore Analysis: Mumbai Indians can now pick a maximum of two players through their RTM cards and it should be either a maximum of two overseas players or two uncapped Indian players. However, they can even opt to pick one overseas and one uncapped Indian player. Players MI will probably use it on: Krunal Pandya and Kieron Pollard MI will probably use their two RTM options in picking the big West Indies all-rounder Pollard and Hardik’s elder brother Krunal using the one overseas plus uncapped combination. MI have only Rs 47 crore left in their bank. So they will be careful about spending their money and will only opt for the two if they feel that the price is right. Krunal has been instrumental in their success over the past couple of years, playing a crucial role with both bat and ball. He lends a lot of balance to the side and it will be important for MI to rope him in. Pollard on the other hand lends exceptional big hitting abilities with the bat and superb fielding abilities. He has been exceptional in the middle order over the years for them and that’s why MI will probably opt for him too. Jos Buttler is probably another player that MI will have as a third option in their mind considering his batting flair and superb wicket-keeping abilities. Kolkata Knight Riders Players retained: Andre Russell and Sunil Narine RTM cards left: 3 Overseas players retainable: 0 Capped Indian players retainable: 3 Uncapped Indian players retainable: 2 Budget left: Rs 59 crore Analysis: After retaining Narine and Russell, KKR have exhausted their quota of using their RTM cards for overseas players. They can now select either a maximum of three capped Indian players or a maximum of two uncapped Indian players along with one capped player with their remaining three RTM cards. Players KKR will probably use it on: Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey and Gautam Gambhir KKR will probably use the three capped Indian player combination to pick up Kuldeep, Pandey and Gambhir. The franchise made a surprise call by retaining two overseas players in Russell and Narine but not the likes of Chris Lynn and Colin Munro. They didn’t even retain their skipper who has guided them to two IPL titles. However, KKR may still want to pick up Gambhir with their RTM card along with their Chinaman bowler Kuldeep and middle order batsman Pandey who have done exceptionally well for them in the past few years. Robin Uthappa is another candidate who can get the call as well. Sunrisers Hyderabad Players retained: David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar RTM cards left: 3 Maximum overseas players retainable: 1 Maximum capped Indian players retainable: 2 Maximum uncapped Indian players retainable: 2 Budget left: Rs 67.5 crore Analysis: SRH have a wide range of combination to use their RTM on, unlike the other franchises. They can use the one overseas plus two capped Indian combination or the one overseas plus two uncapped Indian combination or indeed the two capped plus one uncapped combination. They can also use the one capped plus two uncapped combination or even one each of overseas, capped and uncapped players combination. Players SRH will probably use it on: Rashid Khan, Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh SRH will either go for the one Ooverseas plus two capped Indian combo or the one overseas plus one capped plus one uncapped players combo. If they use the first combination they will probably pick the likes of Rashid, Dhawan and Yuvraj. If they use the second combo they might go for Deepak Hooda. Whatever happens, they are certainly going to pick Rashid and Dhawan. Kings XI Punjab Players retained: Axar Patel RTM cards left: 3 Maximum overseas players retainable: 2 Maximum capped Indian players retainable: 2 Maximum uncapped Indian players retainable: 2 Budget left: Rs 67.5 crore Analysis: The retention of only Axar shocked many. However, they might have plenty more surprises in store. KXIP once again have a wide range of combinations to select from and they have a good budget too. However, it looks like they are going to use the two overseas plus one capped player combination considering the players they might go for. Players KXIP will probably use it on: Hashim Amla, David Miller and Sandeep Sharma Amla has been exceptional for KXIP at the top of the order during the past couple of years. Miller’s big-hitting abilities with the bat in the middle order and lighting fielding abilities is an added bonus as well. And Sandeep gives them the option of a strike bowler with the new ball. Don’t be surprised if they go for Glenn Maxwell instead of any of the other two overseas players. Rajasthan Royals Players retained: Steve Smith RTM cards left: 3 Maximum overseas players retainable: 1 Maximum capped Indian players retainable: 3 Maximum uncapped Indian players retainable: 2 Budget left: Rs 67.5 crore Analysis: Rajasthan Royals, one of the two franchises making a comeback, opted to retain only Smith and have enough cash in their kitty. It looks like they won’t use their RTM for any more overseas players and will use it to pick up two capped Indian players and one uncapped Indian player. Players RR will probably use it on: Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni and James Faulkner Rahane has proved himself to be a real deal at the top of the order over the past few years in the IPL and RR will look to regain him in all probability with their RTM. Faulkner had a terrific couple of seasons with them both with bat and ball. So RR might look to restore their faith on him. And Dhawal Kulkarni is another player they might want to rope him considering the way he has impressed with the new ball over the years. There are other talented Indian players too like Deepak Hooda and Rajneesh Gurbaani that they might look to use their RTM on. So, it seems that they won’t use it for any foreign player at all. Chennai Super Kings Players retained: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja RTM cards left: 2 Maximum overseas players retainable: 2 Maximum capped Indian players retainable: 0 Maximum uncapped Indian players retainable: 2 Budget left: Rs 47 crore Analysis: CSK, another franchise making their comeback, can’t retain any more capped Indian players as they have already retained Dhoni, Raina and Jadeja. Now, they will most probably use the two overseas Indian players combo as there are a lot of valuable overseas players available to them for retention via RTM. Players CSK will probably use it on: Dwayne Bravo and Andrew Tye CSK don’t have too many good uncapped options to select from. So Ishwar Pandey seems to the only good uncapped option they can go for. So they might not pick any of them. And from the overseas players’ list they might have to do some head scratching as players like Brendon McCullum, Bravo, Tye, Dwayne Smith and Faf du Plessis are available for retention. However, Bravo and Tye seem to be the most obvious picks considering their skill sets. Royal Challengers Bangalore Players retained: Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers RTM cards left: 3 Maximum overseas players retainable: 1 Maximum capped Indian players retainable: 2 Maximum uncapped Indian players retainable: 2 Budget left: Rs 49 crore Analysis: RCB have already retained two big shots in De Villiers and Kohli. Now, with only one overseas player to pick, it looks like they will use the one overseas plus two capped players combo to pick the remaining players. Players RCB will probably use it on: Chris Gayle, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kedar Jadhav Despite his waning form, Gayle might still be in RCB’s RTM plans just because of his enormous potential with the bat. Chahal looks like an automatic selection with his leg-spin being a potent weapon for RCB over the years. And Jadhav seems like the third option as he has done enough with the bat in RCB’s poor last season. Delhi Daredevils Players retained: Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Chris Morris RTM cards left: 2 Maximum overseas players retainable: 1 Maximum capped Indian players retainable: 1 Maximum uncapped Indian players retainable: 2 Budget left: Rs 47 crore Analysis: DD have already retained three players in Iyer, Pant and Morris. So they are left with only two RTM cards with a maximum of one overseas, one capped Indian and two uncapped Indian players to select from. So it looks like they will use the one overseas plus one capped Indian players combo as a lot of talented players are available in that category. Players DD will probably use it on: Quinton de Kock and Sanju Samson Delhi have a pleasant headache in the overseas players’ category as players like de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Corey Anderson, Carlos Brathwaite and Pat Cummins are available for selection. However, it will be defined a lot by their budget. The first player that they might look to retain is de Kock. Another player who they might look to use their RTM on is Samson, while Navdeep Saini seems like a potential option too.