The whole cricketing fraternity has been enjoying T20 cricket for the last month because of the T20 World Cup 2022 happening down under. Although the marquee event concluded with England winning the championship for the second time in history, the T20 fever is far from over as the eagerly anticipated list of retained and released players ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auction was announced on Tuesday, November 15, and has the fans buzzing.
Some of the top retained players include the likes of Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, MS Dhoni, Rishabh Pant, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Jos Buttler, Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, and Glenn Phillips among others. Franchises were forced to release a few players to free up some valuable bucks and some of the big ones that got released included Kane Williamson (SRH), Nicholas Pooran (SRH), and Mayank Agarwal (PBKS) among others.
Ahead of the announcement some of the players were also traded by the IPL franchises. Lockie Ferguson was traded by Gujarat Titans (GT) to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Shardul Thakur was traded by Delhi Capitals (DC) to KKR, Rahmunallah Gurbaz was traded by GT to KKR, Jason Behrendorff was traded by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to Mumbai Indians (MI).
Here is the list of the players retained and released by franchises
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Retained Players: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Rinku Singh
Released Players: Pat Cummins, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Sharma, Aman Khan, Chamika Karunaratne, Aaron Finch, Baba Indrajith, Pratham Singh, Shivam Mavi, Mohammad Nabi, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Sheldon Jackson
Purse Remaining: INR 7.05 CR
Trades: Shardul Thakur, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lockie Ferguson
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
Retained Players: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Suyash Prabhudessai, Rajat Patidar, Dinesh Karthik, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Anuj Rawat, Finn Allen, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Karn Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Akash Deep
Released Players: Jason Behrendorff, Aneeshwar Gautam, Chama Milind, Luvnith Sisodia, Sherfane Rutherford
Purse Remaining: INR 8.75 CR
Rajasthan Royals (RR)
Retained Players: Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Jos Buttler, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Prasidh Krishna, Trent Boult, Obed McCoy, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, KC Cariappa
Released Players: Anunay Singh, Corbin Bosch, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Karun Nair, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Shubham Garhwal, Tejas Baroka
Purse Remaining: INR 13.2 CR
Gujarat Titans (GT)
Retained Players: Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, R Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad
Released Players: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lockie Ferguson, Dominic Drakes, Gurkeerat Singh, Jason Roy, Varun Aaron
Purse Remaining: INR 19.25 CR
Delhi Capitals (DC)
Retained Players: Rishabh Pant (c), David Warner, Prithvi Shaw, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje, Chetan Sakariya, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Khaleel Ahmed, Ripal Patel, Rovman Powell, Sarfaraz Khan, Yash Dhull, Mitchell Marsh, Aman Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Praveen Dubey, Vicky Ostwal Lalit Yadav, Lungi Ngidi, Mustafizur Rahman,
Released Players: Shardul Thakur, Tim Seifert, Ashwin Hebbar, Srikar Bharat, Mandeep Singh
Purse Remaining: INR 19.45 CR
Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
Retained Players: MS Dhoni (c), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chowdhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana
Released Players: Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, Adam Milne, Hari Nishaanth, Chris Jordan, Bhagath Varma, KM Asif, Narayan Jagadeesan
Purse Remaining: INR 20.45 CR
Mumbai Indians (MI)
Retained Players: Rohit Sharma (c), Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Jofra Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal
Released Players: Kieron Pollard, Anmolpreet Singh, Aryan Juyal, Basil Thampi, Daniel Sams, Fabian Allen, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, Rahul Buddhi, Riley Meredith, Sanjay Yadav, Tymal Mills
Purse Remaining: INR 20.55 CR
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)
Retained Players: KL Rahul (c), Ayush Badoni, Karan Sharma, Manan Vohra, Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stoinis, Krishnappa Gowtham, Deepak Hooda, Kyle Mayers, Krunal Pandya, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi
Released Players: Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Dushmantha Chameera, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Manish Pandey, Shahbaz Nadeem
Purse Remaining: INR 23.35 CR
Punjab Kings (PBKS)
Retained Players: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Shahrukh Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma, Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Nathan Ellis, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar
Released Players: Mayank Agarwal, Odean Smith, Vaibhav Arora, Benny Howell, Ishan Porel, Ansh Patel, Prerak Mankad, Sandeep Sharma, Writtick Chatterjee
Purse Remaining: INR 32.2 CR
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
Retained Players: Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tripathi, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kartik Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Glenn Phillips, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen, T Natarajan, Umran Malik
Released Players: Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Jagadeesha Suchith, Saurabh Dubey, Sean Abbott, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Priyam Garg, Ravikumar Samarth, Romario Shepherd, Sushant Mishra, Vishnu Vinod
Purse Remaining: INR 42.25 CR