The 2019 IPL pre-season trading window closed on 15 November with all 8 teams chopping and changing their squads ahead of the auction next month. Steve Smith and David Warner have both been retained by their franchises indicating that they will make their big-ticket return with the IPL in March, after serving year-long suspensions for ball tampering.
Defending champions Chennai Super Kings have retained almost the entire squad that won the title last year, releasing just three players who had collectively played only one match in IPL 2018.
Among the Indians, old horses Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh have been sent back to the auction pool by Delhi and Hyderabad while a majority of the Australian players, including Mitchell Starc and Glen Maxwell, have been dropped by their teams after Cricket Australia’s declaration that players headed to the World Cup will miss the beginning and end of the upcoming season.
The auction is scheduled to take place next month with the 12th season of IPL kicking off by late March and wrapping up on 19 May so players can return to their national camps ahead of the ICC World Cup that starts on 30 May in England.
Apart from Steve Smith, Rajasthan Royals also retained their million dollar buy Ben Stokes who had cost them Rs 12.50 crore at the 2018 auction. The franchise’s second-biggest buy Jaydev Unadkat however, has been released after picking just 11 wickets in his 15 appearances last season. He had cost the franchise Rs 11.50 crore. Apart from Unadkat, the other players released by Royals are Anureet Singh, Ankit Sharma and Jatin Saxena.
Sunrisers Hyderabad has dumped injured Wriddhiman Saha along with West Indies T20 captain Carlos Brathwaite. They had traded out Shikhar Dhawan to Delhi earlier this month after the opener expressed his desire to earn more than the Rs 5.2 crore salary he was bought for at the 2018 auction.
The most changes though have been made by Kings XI Punjab who parted ways with not just Yuvraj Singh but also Australia's limited overs skipper Aaron Finch, and Axar Patel. Yuvraj had managed just 65 runs at a poor average of 10.38 in the eight games last season.
The franchise has retained only nine players, that include captain Ravichandran Ashwin, Chris Gayle and Lokesh Rahul, Andrew Tye and Mujeen Ur Rahman.
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