Several big-name players were released by the Indian Premier League franchise as they announced their list of retained players ahead of the 2021 edition.
Australian batsman Steve Smith was the biggest name to be axed as Rajasthan Royals chose the English trio of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer over him, handing the captaincy to Sanju Samson.
Mumbai Indians also parted ways with long-term servant Lasith Malinga, while Kedar Jadhav’s journey with Chennai Super Kings came to an end.
Glenn Maxwell who was in scintillating form during India’s limited-overs series in Australia has also been released by Kings XI Punjab while teammate Aaron Finch is also on his way out of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Here is a franchise-by-franchise list of all the released players:
A recap of all the released players from the team’s official announcements:
Mumbai Indians: Lasith Malinga, Mitch McClenaghan, James Pattinson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sherfane Rutherford, Prince Balwant Rai, Digivijay Deshmukh
Chennai Super Kings: Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Monu Singh, M Vijay, Piyush Chawla
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Aaron Finch, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Shivam Dube, Dale Steyn, Parthiv Patel, Umesh Yadav.
Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Akash Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Anirudha Joshi, Shashank Singh.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Tom Banton, Chris Green, Nikhil Naik, Siddharth M and Siddhesh Lad.
Delhi Capitals: Mohit Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Keemo Paul, Sandeep Lamichhane, Alex Carey, Jason Roy. (Daniel Sams and Harhsal Patel have been released to RCB).
Kings XI Punjab: Glenn Maxwell, Karun Nair, Hardus Viljoen, Jagadeesha Suchith, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Sheldon Cottrell, Jimmy Neesham, Krishnappa Gowtham, Tajinder Singh.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Sanjay Yadav, Bavanaka Sandeep, Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, Yarra Prithviraj