Gayle storm took over Dhaka in the Bangladesh Premier League 2017 final on Tuesday (December 12) as Rangpur Riders beat Dhaka Dynamites to win the title. Chris Gayle was in belligerent mood, scoring 146 runs from just 69 balls. It was an innings glittered with 18 sixes, a world record for the number of maximums in a T20 match.
His heroics were also witnessed in the eliminator match against Khulna Titans, where he amassed a 51-ball 126, including six fours and 14 sixes on Friday (December 8). It means that the West Indian has hit two centuries in the last five days.
Is there a message for RCB?
Ironically, both of Gayle's centuries have come after the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council (GC) confirmed that a team can retain upto a maximum of five players, a combination of retention before the auction and RTMs (Right to Match) during the auction.
Gayle is part of the RCB franchise and his form in the last two seasons has not been too impressive. He has scored 200 and 227 runs in IPL 2016 and 2017 respectively, which is below par for the Jamaican. He was even dropped a few times in the last edition due to his poor scores.
Now, there is a problem for RCB.
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are expected to be their number one and two picks. Now, with such kind of innings coming from Gayle's willow, RCB might be pondering on retaining Gayle if he was not on their plans as the third player for retention.
It also means that they will have to lose a massive sum from their purse for the IPL 2018 auction. If a team retains three players, Rs 15 crore is to be paid to the first player, 11 crore for second, and 7 crore for third.
If RCB decide to retain three players ahead of the auction, they will have to cough up Rs 33 crore on them, allowing only 47 crore for the auction. Are RCB willing to take the risk and get all three?
However, they also have the option of getting the player during the auction via RTMs. With a player like Gayle, who can be retained for Rs 7 crore, other teams in the auction will be more than eager to get him as he is a match-winner. So, there are chances that the cost of Gayle might exceed Rs 7 crore as well, which might make RCB difficult to use their RTM option.
The RCB team management need to think over the entire retention policy and weigh their pros and cons before making their final decision on retaining Gayle or play the waiting game and see what happens in the IPL auction for them to use RTM.
