West Indies duo of Jason Holder and Obed McCoy have been let go of by Rajasthan Royals, while Sri Lanka’s left-handed batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa and uncapped India all-rounder Shahrukh Khan have been released by Punjab Kings on IPL 2024 Retentions Day.
Rajasthan has retained 12 Indians and five overseas players, and announced earlier this week that top order batter Devdutt Padikkal was traded to Lucknow Super Giants, with pacer Avesh Khan joining the franchise in exchange.
Captain Sanju Samson, Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, England's white ball skipper Jos Buttler, New Zealand pacer Trent Boult, recent ODI winner Adam Zampa, West Indies' batter Shimron Hetmyer and capped Indian players Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sandeep Sharma and Kuldeep Sen have been retained by the franchise.
The team has also continued with exciting young all-rounder Riyan Parag along with the wicketkeeper-batter trio of South Africa's Donovan Ferreira, Uttar Pradesh's Dhruv Jurel and Rajasthan's Kunal Singh Rathore. Apart from Holder, McCoy, Joe Root (opted out earlier), Abdul Basith, Akash Vashisht, Kuldip Yadav, M Ashwin, KC Cariappa and KM Asif are other released players. Rajasthan have now a purse of INR 14.5 crore, while Punjab’s remaining purse stands at INR 24.1 crore.
"We had a disappointing season earlier this year where we didn't truly execute as we should have, but given our performances as Runners Up in IPL 2022 where we were so close, we know that the squad we have is capable of bouncing back in our pursuit of competing for the title again.”
“We are excited to be retaining a strong core of players who we believe have the ability to win matches for the team. As a high performance outfit, our goal is to keep refining across various aspects and we have been able to identify the areas where we need to improve considering the different combinations required to win matches during the course of an IPL season."
"On the other hand, every year, this is also a difficult time as you have to let go of some of the players who have contributed immensely to the team and its environment. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for everything they've done for the Royals, and wish them the very best for what's to come," said Kumar Sangakkara, Director of Cricket, RR.
On the Punjab Kings front, apart from Rajapaksa and Shahrukh, Mohit Rathee, Baltej Dhanda and Raj Angad Bawa have been released too. "It was very difficult to decide who to release and who not to. Finally, it came down to a situation where we have to release some players because we have some slots to release," said PBKS CEO Satish Menon on Star Sports.
RR Retained Players: Sanju Samson, Ravichandra Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, Avesh Khan (traded from LSG), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Sen, Sandeep Sharma, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Kunal Singh Rathore, Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, Adam Zampa, Shimron Hetmyer and Donovan Ferreira
RR released Players: Devdutt Padikkal (traded to LSG), Jason Holder, Obed McCoy, Joe Root, Abdul Basith, Akash Vashisht, Kuldip Yadav, M Ashwin, KC Cariappa and KM Asif.
PBKS Retained Players: Shikhar Dhawan, Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa and Shivam Singh
PBKS released players: Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mohit Rathee, Baltej Dhanda, Raj Angad Bawa and Shahrukh Khan