IPL 2019: Yuvraj, Shami out

NEW DELHI: Yuvraj Singh, Aaron Finch, Gautam Gambhir, Brendon Mccullum, Mohd Shami, Mitchell Johnson and Jaydev Unadkat are some of the top names offloaded by their respective franchises ahead of the next season’s IPL. A total of 130 players have been retained by eight IPL teams, including 44 overseas players, according to a press release sent by the BCCI announcing the player contract extensions on Thursday.

Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab — two teams that are yet to win an IPL title — have released 13 and 12 players respectively, the most among the eight franchises. Kings XI Punjab however, have held on to game changers like Chris Gayle and David Miller — two of the most swashbuckling batsmen in T20 cricket — apart from Indian batsmen KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and also R Ashwin.

Top players to be retained by Daredevils are Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Colin Munro Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada and Trent Boult. They had recently traded Shikhar Dhawan from Sunrisers Hyderabad and can still buy 10 players with an available salary cap of ~25.50 crore. Kings XI Punjab has the most funds at its disposal with ~36.20 crore available to spend.

Steve Smith and David Warner, currently serving oneyear international bans in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal in the Cape Town Test earlier this year, are set to make a comeback after they were barred from participating in the IPL last season. Rajasthan Royals named Smith in their squad and Warner too has been retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Chennai Super Kings’ longterm planning once again came to the fore as they retained the most number of players.

India lost 0-2, but Virat Kohli was sensational, scoring four centuries starting with 115 and 141 in the Adelaide classic, and amassing 692 runs.