New Delhi:
IPL 2020: A total of 127 players, including 35 overseas cricketers, were retained by the eight franchises in the Indian Premier League ahead of next month's players auction. The IPL 2020 players auction is to be held on 19th December in Kolkata. The auction is being conducted in Kolkata for the first time. Chris Lynn, David Miller, Jaydev Unadkat and Chris Morris were among the 71 players released by their respective teams. Of the eight franchises, Royal Challengers Bangalore (12) have released the most players while Sunrisers Hyderabad (5) have released the least players from their squad.
On Friday, all eight IPL franchises announced the list of players retained and released by them ahead of the auctions. The franchises were allotted Rs 82 crore each for IPL 2019, Rs 85 crore per team has been earmarked for the 2020 season. Every franchise will also have an additional purse of Rs three crore in addition to the balance in their kitties from the last auction.
Teams like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals have opted to rebuild their squad whereas Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians have their first team sorted with fewest slots remaining to fill.
Kings XI Punjab have the biggest balance-Rs 42.70 crores, followed by Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 35.65 crore and Rajasthan Royals at Rs 28.90 crore. Of the eight franchises, Royal Challengers Bangalore (12) have released the most players while Sunrisers Hyderabad (5) have released the least players from their squad.
Lynn, the big-hitting Australian opener, was released by Kolkata Knight Riders after five fruitful seasons when he got the team off to a flying start on umpteen occasions. The other 10 released KKR players include West Indian Carlos Brathwaite, South African Anrich Nortje, former India players Piyush Chawla and Robin Uthappa, who struggled to get going last season.
Kings XI Punjab go into the auction on December 19 with a purse of Rs 42.70 crore, the biggest among the eight teams after they released eight players including South Africa's Miller, Englishman Sam Curran and mystery Tamil Nadu spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who was bought for a whopping Rs 8.4 crore last year. Miller went on to become one of the batting mainstays for Kings XI Punjab over the past eight seasons, scoring 1850 runs in 79 games at a strike rate of 138.78.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians have retained 18 players including veteran Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga despite his fitness issues while releasing 12. Among the released players are Australian fast bowler Jason Behrendorff and Alzarri Joseph of West Indies, New Zealand's Adam Milne, Beuran Hendricks and Ben Cutting. Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, who quit all forms of cricket including IPL earlier this year, has also been released. Kiwi seamer Trent Boult, West Indian Sherfane Rutherford and Mumbai pacer Dhawal Kulkarni are the three trade-ins for the franchise.
Three-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings have released England cricketers Sam Billings and David Willey besides three Indian players including 2015 World Cupper Mohit Sharma. With 20 players already in their squad, CSK go into the auction with a meagre purse of Rs 14.60 crore.
Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore have let go of their 12 players including seven foreigners. The big names released are South African pacer Dale Steyn, New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme, Australian Marcus Stoinis and West Indies batsman Shimron Hetmyer. They roughly have Rs 28 crore to work with at the auction.
Delhi Capitals, who had traded in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane from KXIP and Rajasthan Royals respectively, have retained young Prithvi Shaw whose doping ban ends on Friday. There was speculation over Shaw being traded to the Royals. The Delhi franchise has released nine players including two South Africans, all-rounder Morris and power-hitter Colin Ingram. New Zealand top-order batsman Colin Munro has also been released and so has been India's Test specialist Hanuma Vihari.
Rajasthan Royals have released 11 players including pacer Jaydev Unadkat, whom they had bought back for Rs 8.4 crore last year after paying Rs 11.5 crore for him in the previous season. The franchise also announced that star Australian batsman Steve Smith will continue to lead the team.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have released the least number of players -- five -- and they include Shakib Al Hasan, who has been banned by the ICC, New Zealand opener Martin Guptill, Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan.
Full List Of Players Retained, Released And Traded Before IPL 2020 Auction
| Team | Players Retained | Players Released | Players Traded |
| CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (CSK) | MS Dhoni (captain & WK), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Murali Vijay, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Rituraj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, K M Asif, David Willey, Deepak Chahar, N Jagadeesan (wk) | Sam Billings, David Willey, Mohit Sharma, Dhruv Shorey and Chaitanya Bishnoi | None |
| KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (KKR) | Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Harry Gurney, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi | Chris Lynn, Carlos Brathwaite, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Nikhil Naik, KC Cariappa, Joe Denly, Srikant Munde, Yarra Prithviraj, Anrich Nortje | IN: Siddhesh Lad (Mumbai Indians) |
| DELHI CAPITALS (DC) | Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Keemo Paul, Sandeep Lamichhane | Hanuma Vihari, Jalaj Saxena, Manjot Kalra, Ankush Bains, Nathu Singh, Bandaru Ayappa, Chris Morris, Colin Ingram, Colin Munro |
IN: R Ashwin (KXIP), Ajinkya Rahane (RR) OUT: Trent Boult, Sherfane Rutherford (MI), J Suchith (KXIP), Rahul Tewatia, Mayank Markande (RR) |
| RAJASTHAN ROYALS (RR) | Steve Smith, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Mahipal Lomror, Varun Aaron, Manan Vohra | Ashton Turner, Oshane Thomas, Shubham Ranjane, Prashant Chopra, Ish Sodhi, Aryaman Birla, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Tripathi, Stuart Binny, Liam Livingstone, Sudheshan Midhun |
IN: Mayank Markande (DC), Rahul Tewatiya, Ankit Rajput OUT: Ajinkya Rahane (DC), K Gowtham (KXIP), Dhaval Kulkarni |
| KINGS XI PUNJAB (KXIP) | KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Mohammed Shami, Nicholas Pooran, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Hardus Viljoen, Darshan Nalkande, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin | Agnivesh Ayachi, Andrew Tye, David Miller, Moises Henriques, Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran, Varun Chakaravarthy |
IN: J Suchith (DC), K Gowtham (RR) OUT: R Ashwin (DC) |
| ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (RCB) | Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Pawan Negi, Umesh Yadav, Gurkeerat Mann, Devdutt Padikkal, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini | Akshdeep Nath, Colin de Grandhomme, Dale Steyn, Heinrich Klassen, Himmat Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Marcus Stoinis, Milind Kumar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Prayas Ray Barman, Shimron Hetmyer, Tim Southee | None |
| SUNRISERS HYDERABAD (SRH) | Kane Williamson, David Warner, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Billy Stanlake, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan | Yusuf Pathan, Shakib al Hasan, Martin Guptill, Deepak Hooda, Ricky Bhui | None |
| MUMBAI INDIANS (MI) | Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Anmolpreet Singh, Jayant Yadav, Aditya Tare, Anukul Roy, Quinton de Kock, Kieron Pollard | Evin Lewis, Adam Milne, Jason Behrendorff, Beuran Hendricks, Ben Cutting, Yuvraj Singh, Barinder Sran, Rasikh Salam, Pankaj Jaswal, Alzarri Joseph |
IN: Dhawal Kulkarni (RR), Sherfane Rutherford, Trent Boult (DC) OUT: Siddesh Lad (KKR) |
(With PTI Inputs)
