The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Monday (December 19) released a list of 140 cricketers, including 44 overseas players, who have been retained by their respective franchises for the upcoming season of the India Premier League.
Dale Steyn (Gujarat Lions), Kevin Pietersen (Rising Pune Supergiants), Mitchell Johnson (Kings XI Punjab), Eoin Morgan (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Trent Boult (Surisers Hyderabad), Martin Guptill (Mumbai Indians), Corey Anderson (Mumbai Indians), Imran Tahir (Delhi Daredevils) and Morne Morkel (Kolkata Knight Riders) were the high-profile names in 63-member list of cricketers released by the franchises.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders have retained only 14 players. The Gautam Gambhir-led franchise, with a salary cap of Rs 197,500,000 remaining, should be one of the busiest franchises in the upcoming auction. They have retained 10 Indian cricketers and four overseas players in the squad – Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan and Chris Lynn.
Players Retained: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Shakib Al Hasan, Chris Lynn, Umesh Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Sheldon Jackson, Ankit Singh Rajput
Players Released: Morne Morkel, Brad Hogg, Jason Holder, Colin Munro, John Hastings, Jaydev Unadkat, R Sathish, Manan Sharma, Shaun Tait
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore have a big squad but they have only 12 Indian players in the squad, and might look to beef up their thin and fragile fast bowling pool. They have retained all the big names in their side, releasing 10 players.
Players Retained: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Sarfaraz Khan, S Aravind, Kedar Jadhav, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Smuel Badree, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Iqbal Abdulla, KL Rahul, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi
Players Released: Varun Aaron, Abu Nechim, David Wiese, Kane Richardson, Vikramjeet Malik, Praveen Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Vikas Tokas, Parvez Rasool, Chris Jordan
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad have retained their core group, even though they have left out star players like Morgan and Boult from the squad. In-form Karn Sharma was also overlooked, with T Suman, Aditya Tare and Ashish Reddy being the three uncapped cricketers to be left out from the squad.
Players Retained: Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, David Warner, Moises Henriques, Naman Ojha, Ricky Bhui, Kane Williamson, Siddarth Kaul, Bipul Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Ben Cutting, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mustafizur Rahman, Barinder Sran, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar
Players Released: Karn Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Eoin Morgan, Trent Boult, T Suman, Aditya Tare
Rising Pune Supergiants
Rising Pune Supergiants left out several players from their squad in order to reshuffle their plans and put up a better performance than the one they managed in their inaugural season. All-rounders Irfan Pathan, Albie Morkel, Murugan Ashwin and Thisara Perera were released apart from in-form Peter Handscomb, veteran George Bailey, death over specialist Scott Boland, senior Indian pacers Ishant Sharma and RP Singh, and middle-order batsmen Saurabh Tiwary.
Players Retained: MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Steven Smith, Faf du Plessis, Mitchell Marsh, Ashok Dinda, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Ankit Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Adam Zampa, Jaskaran Singh, Baba Aparajith, Deepak Chahar, Usman Khawaja
Players Released: Kevin Pietersen, Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Thisara Perera, RP Singh, Scott Boland, M Ashwin, Peter Handscomb, Saurabh Tiwary, Albie Morkel, George Bailey
Gujarat Lions
The Suresh Raina-led Gujarat Lions, who finished their inaugural season placed third, have left out only the injured Dale Steyn among the overseas players, apart from seven domestic cricketers.
Players Retained: Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Andrew Tye, Ishan Kishan, Pradeep Sangwan, Shivil Kaushik, Shadab Jakati, Jaydev Shah
Players Released: Dale Steyn, Paras Dogra, Eklavya Dwivedi, Sarabjit Ladda, Pravin Tambe, Umang Sharma, Amit Mishra, Akshdeep Nath
Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab haven’t tinkered much. They have released only four cricketers – Rishi Dhawan, Johnson, Farhaan Behardien and Kyle Abbott. They still have 19 cricketers, including five foreigners in their squad, apart from Rs 233,500,000 left to be spent from the salary cap.
Players Retained: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Axar Patel, Glenn Maxwell, Gurkeerat Singh, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhiman Saha, M Vijay, Nikhil Naik, Mohit Sharma, Marcus Stoinis, KC Cariappa, Armaan Jaffer, Pardeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh, Hashim Amla
Players Released: Mitchell Johnson, Rishi Dhawan, Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien
Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils, a franchise that has perpetually been among the busiest in the auctions courtesy major shuffling of squads ever year, has released only seven players this season. They have 18 players in the squad, including five overseas players. Despite failing to qualify for the Playoffs last year, they have decided to keep faith in the side for the upcoming season.
Players Retained: JP Duminy, Mohammed Shami, Quinton de Kock, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mayank Agarwal, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Shreyas Iyer, Zaheer Khan, Sam Billings, Sanju Samson, Chris Morris, Carlos Brathwaite, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, CV Milind, Syed Ahmed, Pratyush Singh
Players Released: Nathan Coulter-Nile, Imran Tahir, Joel Paris, Pawan Negi, Pawan Suyal, Akhil Herwadkar, Mahipal Lomror
Mumbai Indians
Like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians retained as many as 20 players. Corey Anderson is a notable member of the released list.
Players Retained: Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Lendl Simmons, Vinay Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, J Suchith, Hardik Pandya, Jos Buttler, Tim Southee, Jithesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Punia
Players Released: Corey Anderson, Marchant de Lange, Unmukt Chand, Akshay Wakhare, Nathu Singh, Kishore Kamath, Martin Guptill, Jerome Taylor
The window for the franchises to retain players for the IPL 2017 season closed December 15, 2016. A collective amount of Rs 1,433,300,000 is remaining in the purse of all the franchises going into the next Player’s Auction.
 released a list of 140 cricketers, including 44 overseas players, who have been retained by their respective franchises for the upcoming season of the India Premier League.){kind=link}