The list of Indian Premier League player list has been announced. The eight franchises - Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals have announced the list of retentions and releases. While few names are shocking, the majority remains expected.
Kolkata Knight Riders: There was a strong buzz of KKR releasing former skipper Dinesh Karthik owing to his poor performance in the last series. However, Dinesh Karthik has been retained. But, Eoin Morgan would continue to lead the team as the Captain this year too.
Players retained: Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan (c), Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Harry Gurney, Ali Khan.
Players released: Chris Green, Tom Banton, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Siddhesh Lad
Purse money left: 10.85 CR
Chennai Super Kings: Before the list came out, Harbhajan Singh tweeted about his contract ending with CSK. He tweeted, "As my contract comes to an end with @ChennaiIPL, playing for this team was a great experience. Beautiful memories made &some great friends which I will remember fondly for years to come. Thank you @ChennaiIPL, management, staff and fans for a wonderful 2years. All the best."
Players retained: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeesan, Faf Du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sam Curran, Ravi Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Mitchell Santner, Josh Hazlewood, Shardul Thakur, Karn Sharma, KM Asif, Imran Tahir, R Sai Kishore, Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi
Players released: Harbhajan Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Shane Watson (retired), Piyush Chawla, Murali Vijay
Purse money left: 22.9 CR
Mumbai Indians: Malinga announced his retirement a day prior to the final list of IPL players was revealed. It has been reported that Malinga had already informed MI of his decision. Rohit Sharma and other Mumbai Indians' players bid a warm farewell to the "match winner".
Players retained: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Quinton de Kock, Chris Lynn, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah, Anmolpreet Singh, Aditya Tare, Saurabh Tiwary, Jayant Yadav, Trent Boult, Mohsin Khan, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy
Players released: Lasith Malinga, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mitchell McCleneghan, James Pattinson, Sherfane Rutherford, Digvijay Deshmukh, Prince Balwant Rai Singh
Purse money left: 15.35 CR
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel had announced his retirement from all forms of cricket last month. So when RCB declared him as a "released" player, it didn't go down well with the player. He tweeted, "An absolute honour to be released after being retired . ... thank you @RCBTweets
Players retained: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Josh Philippe, Mohammad Siraj, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pawan Deshpande, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson.
Players released: Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali, Parthiv Patel (retired), Dale Steyn (opted out), Isuru Udana, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann
Purse money left: 35.7 cr
Sunrisers Hyderabad: There were no unexpected names in the players list retained and released for IPL 2021.
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, Abdul Samad, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh
Players released: Sandeep Bhavanka, Sanjay Yadav, Fabian Allen, Billy Stanlake and Yarra Prithviraj
Purse money left: 10.75 CR
Kings XI Punjab: Chris Gayle retained his spot after a smashing strike rate last season. Glenn Maxwell was let go and KL Rahul will be the skipper again.
Players retained: KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Prabhsimran Singh, Mohammed Shami, Chris Jordan, Darshan Nalkande, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel
Players released: Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, K Gowtham, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Jimmy Neesham, Hardus Viljoen and Karun Nair
Purse money left: 53.2 CR
Rajasthan Royals: After Steve Smith was dumped by RR, Sanju Samson took over the reigns as the skipper. Congratulating him, Shashi Tharoor wrote, "Delighted to congratulate @IamSanjuSamson on his appointment as @RajasthanRoyals captain ahead of #IPL2021! Will be a wonderful platform for Sanju to turn around RR's fortunes after a disappointing time under Steve Smith.
Players retained: Sanju Samson, Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Robin Uthappa, David Miller, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Anuj Rawat
Players released: Steve Smith, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Oshane Thomas, Akash Singh, Ankit Rajpoot, Aniruddha Joshi, Shashank Singh
Purse money left: 34.85 CR
Delhi Capitals: After a record breaking innings last year, Delhi Capitals seems charged to take on the series this year too.
Players retained: Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Pravin Dubey, Lalit Yadav
Players released: Keemo Paul, Sandeep Lamichhane, Alex Carey, Mohit Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Jason Roy
Purse money left: 12.8 CR
