IPL 2021 Retention Highlights: RR release Smith and name Samson as captain; MI part ways with Malinga

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.

Rajasthan Royals' co-owner on Wednesday confirmed that former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara has been roped in as their team director for IPL 2021.

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: Lasith Malinga, Mitch McClenaghan, James Pattinson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sherfane Rutherford, Prince Balwant Rai, Digivijay Deshmukh

Retained: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare (WK), Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan

David Warner (C)

Kane Willaimson

Manish Pandey

Jonny Bairstow

Wriddhiman Saha

Shreevats Goswami

Priyam Garg

Virat Singh

Rashid Khan

Vijay Shankar

Mohammad Nabi

Abhishek Sharma

Mithcell Marsh

Jason Holder

Abdul Samad

T Natarajan

Khaleel Ahmed

Sandeep Sharma

Basil Thampi

Shahbaz Nadeem

Siddharth Kaul

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

MS Dhoni

Suresh Raina

Faf du Plessis

Sam Curran

Josh Hazlewood

DJ Bravo

Lungi Ngidi

Karn Sharma

Ambati Rayudu

Mithcell Santner

Shardul Thakur

Ruturaj Gaikwad

N Jagadeesan

Imran Tahir

Deepak Chahar

KM Asif

R Sai Kishore

Dinesh Karthik

Nitish Rana

Shubman Gill

Rinku Singh

Eoin Morgan

Rahul Tripathi

Sunil Narine

Andre Russell

Pat Cummins

Varun Chakravarthy

Lockie Ferguson

Kuldeep Yadav

Kamlesh Nagarkoti

Shivam Mavi

Prasidh Krishna

Harry Gurney

Sandeep Warrier

Shikhar Dhawan

Prithvi Shaw

Ajinkya Rahane

Rishabh Pant

Shreyas Iyer

Axar Patel

Amit Mishra

Ishant Sharma

Ravichandran Ashwin

Lalit Yadav

Harshal Patel

Avesh Khan

Pravin Dubey

Kagiso Rabada

Anrich Nortje

Marcus Stoinis

Shimron Hetmyer

Chris Woakes

Daniel Sams

Moeen Ali

Shivam Dube

Gurkeerat Singh Mann

Aaron Finch

Chris Morris

Pawan Negi

Parthiv Patel (retired)

Dale Steyn (unavailable)

Isuru Udana

Umesh Yadav

Keemo Paul

Alex Carey

Sandeep Lamichhane

Harshal Patel

Daniel Sams

Mohit Sharma

Tushar Deshpande

Billy Stanlake

Fabian Allen

Sanjay Yadav

B Sandeep

Y Prithvi Raj

Rajasthan Royals have made a major change to their side. They have released Australian batsman Steve Smith and named Sanju Samson as their new captain.

Chennai Super Kings have released Piyush Chawla, Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Monu Kumar Singh, and Shane Watson.

Royal Challenger Bangalore's Director of Cricket Operations Mike Hesson explains team's retention strategy.

So here comes the big news from the Kings XI Punjab Camp. As reported by ESPN Cricinfo, the franchise has decided to release the Australian all-rounder.

The report further states that Sheldon Cottrell, K Gowtham, Mueeb ur Rahman, Jimmy Neesham, Hardus Viljoen and Karun Nair are among the released players.

It will be a tough choice to make for Kings XI Punjab whether to keep Maxwell or let him go. The all-rounder mauled the Indians in the limited-overs series Down Under in November last year. But before that, he had one his worst seasons for the franchise in IPL 2020.

He not only failed to score a single fifty-plus score but also didn't smash a single six in the entire season.

1. Virat Kohli
2. AB de Villiers
3. Yuzvendra Chahal
4. Devdutt Padikkal
5. Washington Sundar
6. Mohammed Siraj
7. Navdeep Saini
8. Adam Zampa
9. Shahbaz Ahmed
10. Josh Philippe
11. Kane Richardson
12. Pawan Deshpande

Earlier this months, veteran South African speedster Dale Steyn announced that he won't be featuring in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. He stated that he was taking some time off, clarifying that he isn't retiring.

Former Indian all-rounder Suresh Raina would be retained by Chennai Super Kings, reports ESPN Cricinfo. He has been an integral part of the franchise and their highest run-getter as well.

Raina also made an early exit from IPL 2020 due to personal reasons. He returned home after joining the side in a bio-secure protocol in the UAE.

On Wednesday morning, veteran Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh informed through a tweet that his 2-year contract with Chennai Super Kings has come to an end.

Harbhajan opted out of the IPL 2020 citing family reasons. His last match with CSK was the IPL 2019 final against MI where the Chennai-based franchise lost to MI by one run.

Let's have a look the balance left in the purses of every franchises

Chennai Super Kings: ₹0.15 crore

Kings XI Punjab: ₹16.5 crore

Rajasthan Royals: ₹14.75 crore

Sunrisers Hyderabad: ₹10.1 crore

Delhi Capitals: ₹9 crore

Kolkata Knight Riders: ₹8.5 crore

Royal Challengers Bangalore: ₹6.4 crore

Mumbai Indians: ₹1.95 crore

Hello and welcome to the Live Blog of the IPL 2021 players retention. The 13th edition of the cash-rich tournament had ended a few months back and here we are to witness the next season shaping up. In the next few hours, all the franchises will release the list of retained players. The anticipation among the fans will be no less than that of an IPL auction. Who goes out, who remains in the team? Well, we have to wait and watch.