Kings XI Punjab seem to have hit the panic button after 11 seasons without silverware and released 11 players ahead of the IPL 2019 player auction next month.
Yuvraj Singh, Axar Patel and Aaron Finch are some of the big-ticket names that have been sent back to the IPL auction kitty after KXIP finished seventh in the 2018 season.
The Karnataka duo of Lokesh Rahul, who was KXIP's leading run scorer, and Karun Nair will be continuing with the team. Ravichandran Ashwin, who led Punjab in the previous edition, has been retained too.
From the overseas lot, wily spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, season 11 purple cap-holder Andrew Tye, explosive opener Chris Gayle and David Miller will don the KXIP threads again. Mayank Agarwal and Ankit Rajpoot will be the uncapped players that will be seen in Season 12 as well.
Earlier in the trading window, Punjab had traded Marcus Stoinis for Mandeep Singh, who had been RCB’s third-highest scorer behind Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, smashing 252 runs in 14 matches.
After all the chopping and changing, KXIP will now head into next month’s auction with a total available purse of Rs 36.20 crore - the most among the 8 teams. They have 15 spots to fill among which 11 can be Indian players and 4 internationals.
Retained: Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair, David Miller and Ravichandran Ashwin
Released: Aaron Finch, Axar Patel, Mohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Barinder Sran, Ben Dwarshuis, Manoj Tiwary, Akshdeep Nath, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar and Manzoor Dar
Traded: Marcus Stoinis for Mandeep Singh (from RCB)
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