Fifty-seven players have been released by eight Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises ahead of the 2021 auction, to be held next month. They include Mumbai Indians' fast bowling great Lasith Malinga, former Rajasthan Royals captain Steve Smith, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, and Kings XI Punjab all-rounder Glenn Maxwell.Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have released the most number of players, 10, though it is noteworthy that among them are wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel, who announced his retirement from all cricket recently, and veteran South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn, who had opted out of the IPL in the first week of this month.Delhi Capitals said in a statement that they have traded all-rounders Harshal Patel and Daniel Sams to RCB. They are, however, yet to name the players that would possibly come from RCB as part of the trading window, which is open until about a week before the auction. The Indian cricket board is yet to announce the auction date.
Full list of retained and released players:
Rajasthan Royals:
Retained players: Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Robin Uthappa
Released Players: Steve Smith, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Akash Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Anirudha Joshi, Shashank Singh
Delhi Capitals:
Retained: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Lalit Yadav, Avesh Khan, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes
Released: Mohit Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Keemo Paul, Sandeep Lamichhane, Alex Carey, Jason Roy
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Retained: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Josh Philippe, Kane Richardson, Pawan Deshpande
Released: Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali, Isuru Udana, Dale Steyn (opted out), Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann, Parthiv Patel (retired)
Mumbai Indians:
Retained: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan
Released: Lasith Malinga, Mitch McClenaghan, James Pattinson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sherfane Rutherford, Prince Balwant Rai, Digivijay Deshmukh
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Retained: Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Ali Khan, Tim Seifert
Released: Tom Banton, Chris Green, Siddhesh Lad, Nikhil Naik, M Siddharth, Harry Gurney
Kings XI Punjab:
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
Released: Glenn Maxwell, Karun Nair, Hardus Viljoen, Jagadeesha Suchith, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Sheldon Cottrell, Jimmy Neesham, Krishnappa Gowtham, Tajinder Singh
Chennai Super Kings:
Retained: MS Dhoni, Imran Tahir, Lungi Ngidi, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, N Jagadeesan, Mitchell Santner, KM Asif, Shardul Thakur, R Sai Kishore, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Josh Hazlewood, Sam Curran, Karn Sharma
Released: Harbhajan Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, Shane Watson (retired), Murali Vijay, Monu Kumar Singh
SunRisers Hyderabad:
Retained: David Warner, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Shahbaz Nadeem
Released: Bavanka Sandeep, Fabian Allen, Sanjay Yadav, Billy Stanlake, Prithvi Raj