IPL retention is a tricky affair. It is just impossible for teams to come up with the best set of retentions for an upcoming season. Now just look at KKR. They did a terrific job by keeping Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy and Ramandeep Singh, but missed out on a few big names. And as it turns out, their released players are performing to their best, leaving KKR red-faced.

For starters, their former skipper Shreyas Iyer slammed his highest FC score, playing for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy — 233 vs Odisha. And now, Afghanistan’s keeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored an excellent 101 vs Bangladesh in the 3rd ODI at Sharjah. That means, the Afghani not only appeared in the IPL Auction auditions, but also managed to pass with flying colours.

With this innings, all eyes will be on him, when it comes to keeper-batters. RCB are in dire need one such player, so are PBKS, GT, and MI, along with KKR, of course. The 22-year-old has a tidy IPL record too. In the 13 matches he has played, he has scored 289 runs, at an average of 22, including two fifties.

Rahmanullah Gurbazs’ T20I record is even better, as in 63 matches he has scored 1657 runs at an average of 26. That also includes a ton and 10 fifties. With many teams looking to fill vacant keeper-batter slots, he could be much in demand, and could also attract multi-crore deals from any franchise.

BAN vs AFG, 3rd ODI

As far as the match is concerned, Bangladesh batted first and posted 244/8 on the board. Mahmudullah was the start for BAN as he scored unbeaten 98, with Mehidy Hasan getting a crucial 66. In reply, Afghanistan were 189/5 at one stage, with Gurbaz getting out for 101.