AUSTRALIAN BIG GUNS MAXWELL, FINCH, SMITH RELEASED AHEAD OF THE IPL AUCTION 2021. DANIEL SAMS AND ROBIN UTHAPPA TRADED. FULL LIST OF RETAINED, RELEASED AND TRADED PLAYERS BEFORE IPL AUCTION 2021.

Three Australian Superstars feathers the IPL release list

IPL fever is back with the player auctions for the fourteenth season. All eight teams are geared up to shake up their squad during the auction scheduled to be held on 11^th February, 2021. Unsure about how the Pandemic will pan out, teams will be looking forward to get a stable team balance who can be suitable for both Indian and foreign conditions. Over the years we have seen teams going for players who can suit their home playing conditions as they were scheduled to play 7 home matches out of 14 matches. But, the scenario changed in the last edition of the money rich league as the tournament had to be forcefully pushed to UAE due to the COVID 19 pandemic and none of the teams had the advantage of home ground. With a very little turnaround time, all franchise owners and management has been busy in shaping up their squads by releasing some and retaining most of the squad for almost most of the teams. Lets have a look at the teams and how they are shaping up and their remaining purse:

Mumbai Indians:

Retained: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya, Jaspreet Bumrah, Kieron Pollard, Quinton de Kock, Krunal Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Chris Lynn, Trent Boult, Saurabh Tiwary, Rahul Chahar, Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jayant Yadav, Mohsin Khan.

Released: Lasith Malinga (Retired), Mitchel McCleneghan, James Pattinson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sherfane Rutherford, Balwant Rai Singh, Digvijay Deshmukh.

Purse Remaining: Rs 15.35 Cr

Big Releases: Lasith Malinga, Mitchel McCleneghan: The highest ever wicket taker in IPL history bids goodbye to the cash rich tournament as an active player. The Slinger decided to hang up his boots from all forms of franchise Cricket. The Sri Lankan and MI legend has been the finest exponents of the toe crusher over the years and has been the most reliable option for all MI captains throughout his tenure. Unfortunately, the great man was unable to showcase his skills in the 2020 edition of the IPL as he backed out for personal reasons. His heroics in all the previous twelve editions will continue to be played the leagues promos for years to come. Along with Malinga, New Zealander, McCleneghan used to form a formidable force with the new ball and the death overs. With the line up consisting of Jaspreet Bumrah and Trent Boult, they have found the finest fit covering these two huge impact players.

Kings XI Punjab:

Retained: KL Rahul (C), Chris Gayle, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Agarwal, Nicolas Pooran, Chris Jordan, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Harpreet Brar, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Prabsimran Singh, Darshan Nalkande.

Released: Glenn Maxwell, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Karun Nair, Jimmy Neesham, Krishnappa Gowtham, Sheldon Cottrell, Hardus Viljoen, Tajinder Singh.

Purse Remaining: Rs 53.2 Cr

Big Releases: Glen Maxwell and Mujeeb Ur Rehman: Probably the biggest release in this years team release news, the Big Show, Glen Maxwell was released by the Punjab franchise based on his series of bad performances during the last edition of the IPL. However, he was in red hot form during the recently concluded series in Australia against India which enable almost all the other franchise to have a look if they can sneak in the Big Show in their squads. Now, the team will be banking on Nicolas Pooran to shoulder the finishing role. The other big release was the Afghanistan mystery spinner, Mujeeb Ur Rehman. After already releasing R Ashwin in the previous year, the spin department is looking shaky with Mujeeb leaving the squad specially after his BBL exploits recently. They do have the highest amount in their purse to go for an all-out shopping during the auction to fill in for these two huge impact players.  

Delhi Capitals:

Retained: Sreyas Iyer (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Marcus Stoinis, Prithvi Shaw, Kagiso Rabada, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rishab Pant, Anrich Nortje, Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Shimron Hetmyer, Avesh Khan, Ishant Sharma, Chris Woakes, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey.

Released: Jason Roy, Alex Carey, Keemo Paul, Sandeep Lamichhane, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Sharma.

Traded: Daniel Sams (In Cash to RCB), Harshal Patel (In Cash to RCB)

Purse Remaining: 13.2 Cr

Big Releases: Alex Carrey and Daniel Sams: The two Aussies are in quite good form in the on-going BBL. Carrey just became the first centurion in this years edition of the BBL and is in a real good form with the bat scoring handy runs in almost every innings. Daniel Sams was not able to deliver as per expectations during the last IPL. However, he is also in red hot form with the bat and ball during the BBL. The all-rounder has also started making his mark in the International circuit as well. This can be a breakthrough year for him and RCB might just get lucky if his BBL form continues.

Rajasthan Royals:

Retained: Sanju Samson (c), Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Sreyas Gopal, Karthik Tyagi, Mahipal Lomror, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Yashasvi Jaiswal, David Miller, Mayank Markhande, Manan Vohra, Anuj Rawat.

Released: Steve Smith, Tom Curran, Oshane Thomas, Akash Singh, Ankit Rajpoot, Varun Aaron, Anirudha Joshi, Shashank Singh.

Traded: Robin Uthappa (In Cash to CSK)

Purse Remaining: 37.85 Cr

Big Releases: Steve Smith: The former captain was not able to show his class with the Royals in the last edition which resulted in, the management had to release Smith from their squad and naming Sanju Samson as their new captain. One of the current fab four batsman Smith will be chased down by many franchises to strengthen their middle order.

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Retained: David Warner (C), Kane Williamson, Rashid Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Bhubaneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Nabi, Mitchel Marsh, Jason Holder, Sandeep Sharma, Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Wriddhiman Saha, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sreevats Goswami, Siddharth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh.

Released: Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, Yarra Prithviraj, Sanjay Yadav, B Sandeep.

Purse Remaining: 10.75 Cr

Big Releases: None: The most balanced squad in the competition decided to go in with almost the same squad. The team management has pretty well covered up all spaces with Warner leading the side who also gets help from the likes of Kane Williamson and Jason Holder as well as having the best T20 player of the decade in Rashid Khan, they did not need to make any real changes. As always, VVS Laxman and his team will be again scouting some local talents who can deliver. What a story, T Natarajan has been for them last year?

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Retained: Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russel, Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Ali Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkotti, Shivam Mavi, Rahul Tripathi, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Tim Seifert.

Released: Tom Banton, Cris Green, Nikhl Naik, Siddhesh Lad, M Siddharth.

Purse Remaining: 10.85 Cr

Big Releases:Like the SRH team, the KKR management also retained almost the core team and not releasing any of the big guns from their squad. They will be hoping for some fire from the muscle Russel unlike last year and some batting form to come back for DK. The team is set to take down any opposition. Just need to have a look out for a opener and a quality Indian seam bowler during the auction.

Chennai Super Kings:

Retained: MS Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Faf DuPlesis, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Imran Tahir, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchel Santner, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Josh Hazelwood, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Lungi Ngidi, Karn Sharma, N Jagadeeshan, KM Asif, R Sai Kishore.

Released: Kedar Jadhav, Shane Watson (Retired), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Vijay, Piyush Chawla, Monu Singh.

Traded: Robin Uthappa (In Cash from RR)

Purse Remaining: 19.9 Cr

Big Releases: Shane Watson: The dad’s army is finally growing old as one of their warhorse, Shane Watson decided to retire from the game which led to his contract release from the franchise. They again roped in a very experienced Uthappa through the trade option, it will be interesting to see whether they will look out for some young talents during the auction.

Royal Challengers Bangalore:

Retained: Virat Kohli (C), AB DeVilliers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sunder, Joshua Phillipe, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed.

Released: Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali, Isuru Udana, Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Pavan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann, Parthiv Patel (Retired).

Traded: Daniel Sams (In Cash from DC), Harshal Patel (In Cash from DC)

Purse Remaining: 35 Cr

Big Releases: Chris Morris and Aaron Finch: RCB has tried everything they can to balance their squad for the last 13 editions of the IPL but still they are waiting for their illusive title. The Virat Kohli led side features one of the best batsman in T20 Cricket in ABD. The Virat-ABD duo has always been a highlight for the franchise but it’s the players around them who are unable to perform as expected. They have been mainly lacking a  proper death bowling option for which they invested in Morris last year who would have played a finisher role with the bat as well. But again, this move also did not work out according to the plan as Morris was well bellow par from expectations. Another big blow for them was the lack of form from World’s number 1 T20 batsman, Aaron Finch. The lack of form continued in BBL which led to the management leaving him out of the squad. Virat will be hoping to get a much balanced side this year and already made a good move in roping in Daniel Sams from the Capitals through the trade option. 

By Sayandeep Dutta

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