The full list of players retained and released ahead of IPL mega auction; Analysis inside-

Ahead of the IPL mega auction with new teams coming in, the franchises announced the list of players who were retained and released. With many shockers and few not-so shockers, a total of 27 cricketers, including eight overseas and four uncapped players, were retained by the existing eight franchises. There are aspects that can prove advantage or disadvantage as they can either get picked by the two new franchises before the auction or go back to the auction pool where they stand a chance to go for a higher or lower price.

 

 

 

Mumbai Indians: Looking at their squad, it must have been very difficult for the team management to make decisions. The most successful team of the IPL have retained Rohit Sharma (Rs 16 Crore), Jasprit Bumrah (Rs 12 Crore), Suryakumar Yadav (Rs 8 Crore) and Kieron Pollard (Rs 6 Crore) but the likes of Ishan Kishan, Trent Boult, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya had to be let go of. This was apt decision by MI.

 

MI's ace names released: Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Trent Boult.

 

Chennai Super Kings: After MI, CSK has been the most popular and successful team. The Four-time champions retained Ravindra Jadeja (Rs 16 Crore), MS Dhoni (Rs 12 Crore), Moeen Ali (Rs 8 Crore), and Ruturaj Gaikwad (Rs 6 Crore). However, they did not retained Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis and Dwayne Bravo who have been very clincal when it comes to win matches.

 

CSK's ace names released: Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Sam Curran, Deepak Chahar

 

Royal Challengers Bangalore: After AB de Villiers announced that he would no longer be a part of the IPL, it was slightly easy job for the Bengaluru franchise. But their decision to retain only Mohammed Siraj and not last season's purple cap holder Harshal Patel raised a few eyebrows. There was no place for leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal too.

 

RCB's ace names released: Harshal Patel, Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal

 

Kolkata Knight Riders: The two-time IPL winners backed the long time players - Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. There was a lot of faith shown on young guns Varun Chakaravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer. In a shocker, there was no place for Shubman Gill.

 

KKR's ace names released: Shubman Gill, Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi.

 

Delhi Capitals: It was not only MI who had to make tough decision. The DC came next after MI as it hosts several ace players. They could only keep Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw and Anrich Nortje.

 

DC's ace names released: Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Ravichandran Ashwin, Marcus Stoinis, Kagiso Rabada.

 

Punjab Kings: There were multiple reports suggesting that KL Rahul won't be a part of the franchise anymore and unfortunately for the PBKS fans, all of them came true. The Punjab Kings decided to retain Mayank Agarwal and uncapped left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh in their side.

 

PBKS's ace released: KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami.

 

Rajasthan Royals: As RR heavily depended on their overseas battery, it meant a difficult job to retain the core as IPL retention rules allowed only two foreign recruits. RR went ahead with Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler while uncapped Yashasvi Jaiswal was the surprise pick.

 

RR's ace names released: Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Mustafizur Rahman

 

SunRisers Hyderabad: With several flops in IPL seasons, they haven't been having the best of times in the IPL. But even then, letting Rashid Khan go into the auction pool was a tad surprising. SRH retained Kane Williamson, uncapped cricketers Abdul Samad and Umran Malik.

 

SRH's ace names released: David Warner, Rashid Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.