IPL auction 2018: 5 best RTM picks by franchises

This year's IPL auctions saw a huge chunk of players being bought by franchises, while some key players like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Rohit Sharma were retained by their respective franchises just before the auction. Right-to-Match cards were used by the franchises to retain the players who played for them in previous editions of IPL.

The RTM's being used by the franchises in the auction to retain the players saw some debatable picks. But there were also a few good RTM picks made by franchises to retain their previous players.

Here we look at 5 best RTM picks made by the franchises in the IPL Auction 2018:

#5 Yuzvendra Chahal (Rs. 6.2 Crores)

Yuzvendra Chahal

Yuzvendra Chahal first came into limelight when his bowling figures of 2 wickets for 9 runs in three overs helped Mumbai Indians defend a low score of 139 against a strong RCB batting lineup in the finals of 2011 Champions League T20. Very soon, in the next auctions of 2014, RCB bought him for his base price of Rs. 10 Lakhs. Quickly, he became a trusted lieutenant of captain Virat Kohli & an integral cog of otherwise very weak RCB bowling lineups.

His exploits in IPL saw him get selected to the Indian ODI and T20 team for the tour of Zimbabwe in 2015, and very soon he, along with Kuldeep Yadav, established themselves as key members of Indian spin bowling line-up pushing the celebrated Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja out of Indian ODI and T20 team setup.

As soon as the RCB management decided to retain young Sarfaraz Khan ahead of Chahal before the IPL auctions it was no guessing that they would use one of their RTM on the leggie, and eventually bought him for Rs. 6.2 Crores in the auction. He eventually turned out to be one of their positives in a disappointing last season.

#4 Krunal Pandya (Rs. 8.8 Crores)

Krunal Pandya

Krunal Pandya, the elder of the Pandya brothers, was bought by Mumbai Indians for Rs. 2 Crores in the 2016 IPL Auctions and won many hearts with his all-round performances. That season, his standout was a game-changing innings of 86 runs of 37 balls against a strong Delhi Daredevils bowling line-up.

He was one of the main reasons why Mumbai Indians won last year's IPL as his match-winning innings of 47 runs helped Mumbai score a respectable total of 129 runs for 8 wickets when at one stage it looked like Mumbai would not even cross 100 runs, helping them win the finals by 1 run.

Despite a poor all-round performance for Baroda in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, the Mumbai Indians management did not even think twice and used their RTM on Krunal, even after RCB had almost bought him for a whopping amount of Rs. 8.8 Crores.

#3 Dwayne Bravo (Rs. 6.4 Crores)

Dwayne Bravo

Dwayne Bravo is one of the best all-round package in T20s, despite being out of the West Indies national team for two years. Chennai Super Kings used one of their RTM and brought him back for Rs. 6.4 Crores. Much to the delight of Chennai Super Kings fans, who were disappointed with the loss of hometown boy Ravichandran Ashwin to Kings XI Punjab in the auctions, Bravo was back.

Bravo was an important part of Chennai Super Kings franchise from 2011 before they were suspended for two years. After their suspension, Chennai Bravo played for Gujarat Lions in 2016 edition of IPL and was one of the main reasons for the Lions reaching the playoffs.

The West Indian missed out playing in 2017 edition of IPL due to an injury suffered in the Big Bash and his absence was felt by Gujarat as they had a disappointing campaign, finishing 7th, especially due to the lack of good bowlers.

Bravo is also one of the best death bowlers going around and would look forward to winning the Purple Cap a record 3 times when the IPL season begins.

#2 Marcus Stoinis (Rs. 6.2 Crores)

Marcus Stoinis

Many of the Punjab fans might have not expected Kings XI Punjab to use their RTM on Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis ahead of Glenn Maxwell, who, despite his inconsistency, was one of the main reasons for Punjab reaching the finals of 2014 edition of IPL, which has, till date, been Punjab's best performance in all the editions of IPL.

Stoinis is currently Australia's first choice all-rounder & can easily hit a cricket ball long with brute power. He has been in tremendous hitting form currently and was one of the positives for the Australian team, who are currently going through a rough patch in shorter formats, having lost ODI series in India 1-4 and also losing the recently concluded ODI series to England at home by a similar margin.

By looking at Stoinis's recent form and performance, it was a wise decision by Punjab to use their RTM on him for Rs. 6.2 Crores ahead of established names like Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh and Hashim Amla, thereby making Stoinis one of the players to watch for in the 2018 edition of IPL.

#1 Rashid Khan (Rs. 9 Crores)

Rashid Khan

The rise of young Rashid Khan, from a war-torn country like Afghanistan, has made every cricket lover excited, while making him the toast of Afghanistan Cricket. He is one of the reasons why Afghanistan were given the Test status last year.

In the 2017th edition of the IPL, when SRH bought Rashid Khan for a huge amount of 4Crores meant that this young kid from Afghanistan had some special talent and he did not disappoint them. He emerged as the second highest wicket-taker for SRH, troubling international batsmen with his variations. He has continued to trouble the best in the Big Bash this year and is currently the joint highest wicket-taker.

After failing to retain Rashid before the auctions, it was certain that Sunrisers team management would use their RTM on Rashid. As expected, they bought him back for Rs. 9 Crores after a fierce bidding war had broken out between Punjab and RCB to acquire his services.