The deadline for the eight Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises to submit their list of retained players came to an end on Thursday with the likes of Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch and JP Duminy being released by their respective teams.
With Australia’s players being directed by their board to report for the 2019 ICC World Cup training camp by mid May, several franchises have chosen not to retain players belonging to the country.
Mumbai Indians have let go of Australia pacer Pat Cummins who had missed the 2018 edition with an injury. The franchise has also chosen to not retain South Africa’s JP Duminy.
Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders had opted not to retain Australia pacer Mitchell Starc. Australia limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch is another player not be retained by his franchise with Kings XI Punjab releasing him.
Delhi Daredevils chose to release Glenn Maxwell along with all-rounder Dan Christian while D’Arcy Short and Ben Laughlin were let go by the Rajasthan Royals.
Despite Australia’s players being the worst-hit, the banned duo of Steve Smith and David Warner were unaffected. Smith was retained by the Rajasthan Royals while Warner remains with the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
England players also did not find too many takers for their services. While Chennai Super Kings had already let pacer Mark Wood go, there were several English players who were released by the franchises on Thursday.
Among them was Alex Hales who was not retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad along with his compatriot Chris Jordan. Opening batsman Jason Roy was released by the Delhi Daredevils while Chris Woakes and Tom Curran were let go by Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively.
Star all-rounder Ben Stokes was retained by Rajasthan Royals despite his underwhelming display in 2018 while Moeen Ali kept his place in the Royal Challengers squad.
Among India’s domestic players, Yuvraj Singh not being retained by Kings XI Punjab made the biggest headline. Another big name to miss out was Gautam Gambhir who was released by the Delhi Daredevils along with Mohammed Shami.
Pacer Jaydev Unadkat was cut by Rajasthan after becoming the most expensive domestic purchase in the last edition while India wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha failed to find a place in the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad.
RELEASED PLAYERS
KINGS XI PUNJAB: Marcus Stoinis (traded to RCB), Axar Patel, Aaron Finch, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Sran, Yuvraj Singh, Ben Dwarshuis, Manoj Tiwary, Akshdeep Nath, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar.
DELHI DAREDEVILS: Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Gurkeerat Mann, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Shami, Dan Christian, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma (traded to SRH), Shahbaz Nadeem (traded to SRH), Sayan Ghosh, Liam Plunkett, Junior Dala, Naman Ojha.
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Tom Curran, Cameron Delport, Javon Searles, Ishank Jaggi, Apoorv Wankhade, Vinay Kumar.
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Jaydev Unadkat, Anureet Singh, Ankit Sharma, Jatin Saxena, D’Arcy Short, Ben Laughlin.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Shikhar Dhawan (Traded to Delhi Daredevils), Sachin Baby, Tanmay Agarwal, Wriddhiman Saha, Chris Jordan, Carlos Brathwaite, Alex Hales, Bipul Sharma, Syed Mehdi Hasan.
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Mark Wood, Kanishk Seth, Kshitiz Sharma.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Quinton de Kock (traded to Mumbai Indians), Mandeep Singh (traded to Mumbai Indians), Brendon McCullum, Chris Woakes, Corey Anderson, Sarfraz Khan.
MUMBAI INDIANS: Mustafizur Rahman, Pat Cummins, Akila Dananjaya, JP Duminy, Saurabh Tiwary, Tajinder Singh, Mohsin Khan, Pradeep Sangwan, MD Nidheesh, Sharad Lumba.