Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Chris Morris
The full list of retained players and those released by the respective franchises were announced on Wednesday, ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 auction, which is expected to be held next month. The list subsequently reveals which team will be heading to the auction table with maximum purse and work to do.
The 14th edition of the IPL, which will once again comprise of eight teams, is expected to be held between April and May. Although the venue is yet to be decided, it is most likely to return to India after having played an entire season in UAE in the previous edition.
A total of 57 players have been released with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab expected to be the busiest at the auction table having released 10 and nine players respectively, with the latter heading to the auction with the maximum amount available in their purse. 60 spots will be available for grabs of which 21 are overseas. Sunrisers Hyderabad have retained most of their players while RCB have retained the least.
| Franchise | Players retained | Players released | Purse remaining | Available Slots | Overseas Slots |
| CSK | 18 | 6 | 22.9 cr | 7 | 1 |
| DC | 19 | 6 | 12.8 cr | 6 | 2 |
| KXIP | 16 | 9 | 53.2 cr | 9 | 5 |
| KKR | 18 | 6 | 10.85 cr | 7 | 1 |
| MI | 18 | 7 | 15.35 cr | 7 | 4 |
| RR | 17 | 8 | 34.85 cr | 8 | 3 |
| RCB | 12 | 10 | 35.7 cr | 13 | 4 |
| SRH | 22 | 5 | 10.75 cr | 3 | 1 |
| Total | 140 | 57 | 196.4 cr | 60 | 21 |
Here is the full list of players retained, released, and the remaining purse of each franchise...
Chennai Super Kings
Released players: Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Monu Singh, Shane Watson (retired)
Retained players: MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Faf Du Plessis, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Josh Hazlewood, Lungi Ngidi, Ambati Rayudu, Karn Sharma, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Ruturaj Gaikwad, N Jagadeesan, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, R Sai Kishore
Chennai Super Kings
Kings XI Punjab
Released players: Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, K Gowtham, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair and James Neesham
Retained players: KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Mohammed Shami, Chris Jordan, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Ravi Bishnoi, Prabhsimran Singh, Deepak Hooda, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Murugan Ashwin, Darshan Nalkande, Ishan Porel and Harpreet Brar
Delhi Capitals
Released players: Jason Roy, Sandeep Lamichhane, Mohit Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Keemo Paul, Alex Carey
Retained players: Shreyas Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Lalit Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Daniel Sams, Anrich Nortje
Sandeep Lamichhane
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Released players: Tom Banton, Nikhil Naik, Chris Green, Siddhesh Lad, M Siddharth, Harry Gurney
Retained players: Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, 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
Rajasthan Royals
Released players: Steve Smith, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Shashank Singh, Akash Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Anirudha Joshi
Retained players: Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Manan Vohra, Robin Uthappa
Sanju Samson
Mumbai Indians
Released players: Lasith Malinga, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mitchell McClenaghan, James Pattinson, Sherfane Rutherford, Digvijay Deshmukh, Prince Balwant Rai.
Retained players: 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
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Released players: Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali, Isuru Udana, Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann, Parthiv Patel
Retained players: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Josh Philippe, Kane Richardson, Pavan Deshpande
Chris Morris
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Released players: Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, Sanjay Yadav, Billy Sandeep and Yarra Prithvi Raj
Retained players: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Vijay Shankar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Wriddhiman Saha, Abdul Samad, Mitchell Marsh, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh
