Top-ranked IPL side Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday ended their 11-year association with veteran all-rounder Dwayne Bravo while Sunrisers Hyderabad ‘released’ star batsman Kane Williamson ahead of the Indian Premier League ‘mini’ auction. . Tuesday was the last day to ‘retain’ and ‘release’ players ahead of the ‘mini’ auction to be held in Kochi on December 23. The day began with Mumbai Indians announcing the retirement of West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard from IPL.
Five-time champions Mumbai have appointed him as their batting coach. Apart from this, Punjab Kings ‘released’ their last season’s captain Mayank Agarwal while Sunrisers ‘released’ West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran. Mumbai Indians ‘released’ a total of 13 players including Pollard. Apart from Bravo, Chennai has not kept England’s death overs specialist Chris Jordan in the team, which seems to be a surprising decision.
Kasi Viswanathan, CEO, Chennai Super Kings said, “It was a tough decision as far as retention and release of players are concerned as Chennai is very fond of its players and they too have contributed to the franchise. ‘Releasing’ the players was a very difficult decision for us.” Kasi also said that as far as the captaincy is concerned, their talismanic skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead the team.
He said, “Everyone knows that Thalaiva (Dhoni) will lead the team and he will give his best and the team will do well.” Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals have released four players, including India’s Mandeep Singh, KS Bharat and Ashwin Hebbar and New Zealand wicket-keeper batsman Tim Seifert. Delhi Capitals gave all-rounder Shardul Thakur to Kolkata Knight Riders and took all-rounder Aman Khan from him. The first IPL winner Rajasthan Royals released a total of nine players including four Indians. Due to this, an amount of Rs 13.2 crore was saved with him.
The players who were released include James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Rassie van der Dussen. Sunrisers Hyderabad will be the highest bidder for the auction at Rs 42.25 crore, followed by Punjab Kings and Lucknow Supergiants with Rs 32.2 crore and Rs 23.35 crore, respectively. This time the teams will also get a chance to spend an additional five crore rupees in the auction. Royal Challengers Bangalore released Jason Behrendorff, Anishwar Gautam, Chama Milind, Lavnith Sisodia, Sherfane Rutherford and now have Rs 8.75 cr left.
Lockie Ferguson, Dominic Drakes, Gurkeerat Singh and Jason Roy are among the six players released by defending champions Gujarat Titans. As far as Sunrisers are concerned, Williamson (Rs 14 crore) was their costliest player. Williamson remained with Sunrisers for eight seasons in which he played 76 matches. He was the captain in 46 of these matches. Apart from Williamson, the release of Pooran will make Sunrisers the highest pocket money in the mini-auction. He bought Puran for Rs 10.75 crore.
Following is the list of players who were released ahead of the IPL auction. Mumbai Indians: Kieron Pollard, Anmolpreet Singh, Aryan Juyal, Basil Thampi, Daniel Symes, Fabian Allen, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, Rahul Buddhi, Riley Meredith, Sanjay Yadav, Tymal Mills Chennai Super Kings: Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, Adam Milne, Hari Nishant, Chris Jordan, Bhagat Verma, KM Asif, Narayan Jagadeesan Kolkata Knight Riders: Pat Cummins, Sam Billings, Aman Khan, Shivam Mavi, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane Ashok Sharma, Baba Inderjit, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Sheldon Jackson Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Jagdish Suchith, Priyam Garg, Ravikumar Samarth, Romario Shepherd, Saurabh Dubey, Sean Abbott, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Gopal , Sushant Mishra, Vishnu Vinod. Punjab Kings: Mayank Agarwal, Odion Smith, Vaibhav Arora, Benny Howell, Ishan Porel, Ansh Patel, Prerak Mankad, Sandeep Sharma, Ritik Chatterjee Lucknow Super Giants: Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajput, Dushmantha Chameera, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Manish Pandey Shahbaz Nadeem. Gujarat Titans: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lockie Ferguson, Dominic Drakes, Gurkeerat Singh, Jason Roy, Varun Aaron Delhi Capitals: Tim Seifert, Mandeep Singh, KS Bharath, Ashwin Hebbar. Rajasthan Royals: Karun Nair, Anunay Singh, Tejas Baroka, Shubham Garwal, James Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Corbin Bosch Royal Challengers Bangalore: Jason Behrendorff, Anishwar Gautam, Chama Milind, Lavnith Sisodia, Sherfane Rutherford .
