All eight Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises announced the list of players retained and released by them ahead of the IPL auctions on Friday. The glitzy league is usually held in April-May every year and players' auction is being conducted in Kolkata for the first time on December 19.
While 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.
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.
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.
Here is the list of players released and retained by different franchises:
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Players released (11): Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetymer, Akshdeep Nath, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin De Grandhomme, Prayas Ray Barman, Tim Southee, Kulwant Khejroliya, Himmat Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Milind Kumar (and Dale Steyn, who was mid-season replacement)
Rajasthan Royals:
Players released (11): Ashton Turner, Oshane Thomas, Shubham Ranjane, Prashant Chopra, Ish Sodhi, Aryaman Birla, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Tripathi, Stuart Binny, Liam Livingstone, Sudheshan Midhun
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Players released (10): Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Piyush Chawla, Joe Denly, Yarra Prithviraj, Nikhil Naik, KC Cariappa, Matthew Kelly, Shrikant Mundhe and Carlos Brathwaite
Delhi Capitals:
Players released (5): Chris Morris, Colin Ingram, Hanuma Vihari, Ankush Bains and Colin Munro.
Players retained: Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Kagiso Rabada, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel and Harshal Patel.
Chennai Super Kings:
Players released (5): Mohit Sharma, Sam Billings, David Willey, Dhruv Shorey and Chaitanya Bishnoi.
Mumbai Indians:
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Players released (7): Yuvraj Singh, Evin Lewis, Adam Milne, Jason Behrendorff, Barinder Sran, Ben Cutting and Pankaj Jaiswal.
Retained players: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Anmolpreet Singh, Jayant Yadav, Aditya Tare, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni (Traded in), Quinton de Kock, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell McClenaghan.