Several big-name players were released by Indian Premier League franchises as they announced their list of retained players ahead of the 2021 edition.
With most teams having a solid playing XI, the focus is on the bench strength and teams have realised that overspending in that area is not ideal. They ideally want players who can come in at crucial times and make a difference if needed.
Some buy backs may still happen and not all teams have reached the minimum spending requirement. So it will still be an interesting auction.
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, who announced his retirement from franchise cricket, 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 his compatriot Aaron Finch is also on his way out of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
After all those and many other changes, here’s what the teams will have available for the auction:
IPL 2021/ Squad Size/Salary Cap/Available Slots
| Franchise | No of Players | No of Overseas Players | Total money spent (Rs.) | Salary cap available (Rs.) | Available Slots | Overseas Slots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSK | 18 | 7 | 62.10 | 22.90 | 7 | 1 |
| DC | 19 | 6 | 72.0982 | 12.9018 | 6 | 2 |
| KXIP | 16 | 3 | 31.80 | 53.20 | 9 | 5 |
| KKR | 17 | 6 | 74.25 | 10.75 | 8 | 2 |
| MI | 18 | 4 | 69.65 | 15.35 | 7 | 4 |
| RR | 17 | 5 | 50.15 | 34.85 | 8 | 3 |
| RCB | 12 | 4 | 49.10 | 35.90 | 13 | 4 |
| SRH | 22 | 7 | 74.25 | 10.75 | 3 | 1 |
| Total | 139 | 42 | 483.39 | 196.60 | 61 | 22 |
Following is the list of players who have been released by the different franchises ahead of the auction for the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League:
Chennai Super Kings
Players retained: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, N Jagadeesan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood, R Sai Kishore
Players released: Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Monu Singh, Shane Watson
Delhi Capitals
Players retained: Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, R Ashwin, Rishabh Pant, Shikhar Dhawan, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Pravin Dubey, Chris Woakes
(Note: Harshal Patel and Daniel Sams were traded to RCB on Thursday)
Players released: Alex Carey, Keemo Paul, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Lamichhane, Mohit Sharma, Jason Roy
Kings XI Punjab
Players retained: KL Rahul, Arshdeep Singh, Chris Gayle, Darshan Nalkande, Harpreet Brar, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Mohd. Shami, M Ashwin, Nicholas Pooran, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Chris Jordan, Prabhsimran Singh
Players released: Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, Mujeeb Zadran, Hardus Viljoen, James Neesham, Krishnappa Gowtham, Karun Nair, Jagadeesha Suchith, Tejinder Singh Dhillon
Kolkata Knight Riders
Players retained: Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Tim Seifert
Players released: Chris Green, Harry Gurney, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Siddhesh Lad, Tom Banton
Mumbai Indians
Players retained: Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohsin Khan
Players released: Prince Balwant Rai, Digvijay Deshmukh, Lasith Malinga, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Pattinson, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell McCleneghan
Rajasthan Royals
Players retained: Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Mayank Markande, Rahul Tewatia, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Robin Uthappa, Jaydev Unadkat, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, David Miller, Andrew Tye
Players released: Steve Smith, Akash Singh, Anirudha Joshi, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Shashank Singh, Tom Curran, Varun Aaron
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Players retained: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Md. Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Phillipe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson
Players released: Chris Morris, Shivam Dube, Aaron Finch, Umesh Yadav, Dale Steyn, Moeen Ali, Parthiv Patel, Pawan Negi, Isuru Udana, Gurkeerat Mann
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Players retained: David Warner, Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad
Players released: Billy Stanlake, Sandeep Bavanaka, Fabian Allen, Sanjay Yadav, Prithviraj Yarra
