Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2018, Player Retention, Royal Challengers, IPL 11, Virat Kohli, Sarfraz Khan, AB de Villiers
Ab de Villiers feels RCB needs to get back to winning ways before its get late. Image Courtesy: BCCI

With the salary cap of INR 80 crore Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has extravagantly shelled out 31 crore – to pick the local players in the form of batting mainstay and skipper Virat Kohli and promising youngster Sarfaraz Khan, who has been part of the Bangalore-based franchise, but missed out due to injury in the tenth edition.

In the past, the crowd-favorite team which has availed the services of power-hitters in the form of Chris Gayle and Shane Watson, who has been ignored in the retention players list, as star batsman AB de Villiers is the third pick owing to the guidelines set by the IPL Governing Council earlier.

The list of the retention players list was officially released on Thursday (January 4).

The RCB has retained the players to strengthen the core in a bid to eye for their first title of the IPL.

With two Right to Match (RTM) cards available, the Bangalore-based team has now the amount of INR 49 crore available in the salary cap.

Here’s the list of retained players with bucks spent on them.

Virat Kohli INR 17 crore:

Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2018, Player Retention, Royal Challengers, IPL 11, Virat Kohli, Sarfraz Khan, AB de Villiers
Virat Kohli has been the great prospect for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Photo Credit: IPL/BCCI.

Owing to the rapid rise, the 29-year-old Virat Kohli has become the costliest buy in the IPL history after he bagged whooping INR 17 crore during the player retention in Mumbai, as he was the obvious pick for the side to maintain the fan-base in the hot-favorite team.

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The batting powerhouse has played a quintessential role for the RCB which further saw his commitment and dedication to delivering goods.

In 2013, Kohli was named as the skipper of the RCB which saw him ruling the roost.

Since the inception of the game, Kohli has featured in 149 T20s; Kohli amassed 4,418 runs at an average of 37.44. He has five tons and 30 half-centuries.

AB de Villiers INR 11 crore:

Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2018, Player Retention, Royal Challengers, IPL 11, Virat Kohli, Sarfraz Khan, AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers has been the game changer as his service for Royal Challengers Bangalore is seen as something incredible for this season. Photo Credit: IPL/BCCI.

Acrobatic on the field and an absolute treat to watch has been a hot-property of the IPL in the recent past.

The RCB management has relied solely on the core which can change the complexion of the game within no time, and Pretoria-based dynamic batsman knows who to score runs around the dial while relying on his improvisation.

In 2011, de Villiers was availed by the RCB in $1.1 million which saw him giving best for his side while flaying the top-quality bowlers.

Even though de Villiers suffered in between, but he is the one who could decimate any of the attacks on his day while having all the shots in his book.

So far, in 129 matches de Villiers smashed 3,473 runs at an average of 38.14. He has three hundreds and 22 fifties on his belt.

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Sarfraz Khan INR 1.75 crore:

Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2018, Player Retention, Royal Challengers, IPL 11, Virat Kohli, Sarfraz Khan, AB de Villiers
Royal Challengers Bangalore has relied on the young gun. Photo Credit: IPL/BCCI.

The 20-year-old Mumbai-based batsman Sarfaraz Khan has been an interesting pick for the RCB under INR 2 crore.

The middle-order batsman Sarfaraz has shown his talent in the past two IPL editions in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

In overall 18 IPL matches, Sarfraz has registered 177 runs at an average of 29.50, and he is expected to change the fortunes of the side which has reached to the final of IPL thrice in 2009, 2011 and 2016, but went to loose on all three occasions.

Read the retention players’ list for different teams here in detail:

IPL 2018: Players Retained by Chennai Super Kings

IPL 2018: Players Retained by Kolkata Knight Riders

IPL 2018: Players Retained by Kings XI Punjab

IPL 2018: Players Retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad

Follow all the IPL news here: IPL 2018

Tahir Ibn Manzoor is the Editor-In-Chief at Cricket Addictor, who follows cricket like food and he has a great affection for the long-form journalism. He has been associated with the organisation since...