IPL Trading Window Wrap: Gambhir Released, Smith Retained & More

Here’s the full list of players retained, released and traded by the franchises ahead of the IPL Auction 2019.

File photo of Gautam Gambhir and Steve Smith.

(Photo: BCCI)

It was curtains for the pre-season trading window of the Indian Premier League 2019 on Wednesday.

All the eight teams of IPL have done some chopping and brought some changes to their squad ahead of the auction slated to take place next month.

Steve Smith and David Warner, who are serving a year-long ban following their involvement in a ball-tampering scandal, have been retained by their franchises indicating that they will make their big-ticket return to international with the IPL in March.

Among the Indians, old horses Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh have been sent back to the auction pool by Delhi and Punjab respectively. Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan will be returning to Delhi Daredevils after playing six seasons with Sunrisers Hyderabad in a trade-off between the two teams.

Apart from Dhawan, Quinton de Kock, Mandeep Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem are other players who will be playing for new teams next season.

Here's a look at the full list of players retained, released and traded by the franchises ahead of the IPL Auction 2019.

Kings XI Punjab: Gayle Retained, Yuvraj Released

The Punjab franchisee has made the maximum number of changes to the existing squad. The Priety Zinta-owned side retained only ten players from last season.

Yuvraj Singh is the most notable name in the released list of players, which includes 10 more players.

Salary cap available:  Rs. 36.20 cr

Available slots: 15 (Indian 11, Overseas 4)

Traded In: Mandeep Singh

Traded Out: Marcus Stoinis

Retained Players: Chris Gayle, David Miller, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, R Ashwin, Ankit Rajpoot, Andrew Tye, Mujeeb ur Rahman

Released Players: Axar Patel, Aaron Finch, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Sran, Yuvraj Singh, Ben Dwarshuis, Manoj Tiwary, Akshdeep Nath, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 4 Players Released

Royal Challengers Bangalore were the first team to initiate the transfer process. They traded South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock to Mumbai Indians for a cash deal. Mumbai Indians had to pay them Rs 2.8 crore in the trade-off.

They also traded batsman Mandeep to Kings XI Punjab for Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis.

Former Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum was among the four players released by the side along with Chris Woakes, Corey Anderson, Sarfraz Khan.

Salary cap available: Rs 18.15 cr

Available slots: 10 (Indian 8, Overseas 2)

Traded In: Marcus Stoinis

Traded Out: Quinton de Kock, Mandeep Singh

Retained Players: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya, Nathan Coulter-Nile

Released Players: Brendon McCullum, Chris Woakes, Corey Anderson, Sarfraz Khan

Kolkata Knight Riders: Starc And Johnson Released

As expected, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have parted ways with Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, who missed last season due to injury after being picked up for Rs 9.40 crore at the 2018 auction.

Apart from Starc, KKR also released Mitchell Johnson, Tom Curran, Cameron Delport and Javon Searles. Veteran pacer R Vinay Kumar has also been shown the door by the Kolkata franchise.

Under-19 pace sensation Kamlesh Nagarkoti, who didn't play a single game,has managed to keep his place along with his replacement, Prasidh Krishna.

Salary cap available: Rs 15.20 cr

Available slots: 12 (Indian 7, Overseas 5)

Retained Players: Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna

Released Players: Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Tom Curran, Cameron Delport, Javon Searles, Ishank Jaggi, Apoorv Wankhade, Vinay Kumar

Delhi Daredevils: Gambhir Dropped, Dhawan Picked

The Daredevils have again gone for a complete overhaul for another new season.

The Delhi side, who are yet to win an IPL trophy, have brought in local boy Shikhar Dhawan in a deal involving both players and cash. They traded Dhawan, who is valued at Rs 5.2 crore, from Sunrisers Hyderabad and in return gave them all-rounder Vijay Shankar (Rs 3.2 crore), under-19 batsman Abhishek Sharma (Rs 55 lakh), and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (Rs 3.2 crore).

Sunrisers paid Daredevils an extra Rs 1.75 crore since the combined value of those players was more than Dhawan's value of Rs 5.2 crore.

Gambhir’s release was on expected lines. Glenn Maxwell and Mohammad Shami are also part of the release list.

Salary cap available: Rs 25.50 cr

Available slots: 10 (Indian 7, Overseas 3)

Traded In: Shikhar Dhawan

Traded Out: Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem

Retained Players: Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Manjot Kalra, Colin Munro, Chris Morris, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Harshal Patel, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult, Sandeep Lamichhane, Avesh Khan

Released Players: Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Gurkeerat Mann, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Shami, Dan Christian, Sayan Ghosh, Liam Plunkett, Junior Dala, Naman Ojha

Chennai Super Kings: Only Two Slots Available, Both Indian

No surprises here. MS Dhoni has retained the winning squad of 2019, barring three players - Mark Wood, Kanishk Seth, Kshitiz Sharma.

Mark Wood played only one game last season for CSK and conceded 49 runs in four overs. Both Kanishk Seth and Kshitiz Sharma are uncapped players.

New Zealand allrounder Mitchell Santner, who missed the 2018 season due to a knee injury, has been retained along with his replacement David Willey.

Courtesy the trust shown by Dhoni in his squad, the Chennai Super Kings can buy on two players at the auction next month and that too only Indians.

Salary cap available: Rs 8.40 cr

Available slots: 2: Indian 2, Overseas 0

Retained Players: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, M Vijay, Shane Watson, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, David Willey, Dwayne Bravo, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Sam Billings, Harbhajan Singh, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Dhruv Shorey, N Jagadeesan, Shardul Thakur, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi.

Released Players: Mark Wood, Kanishk Seth, Kshitiz Sharma

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner Set to Make a Comeback

Sunrisers have made some big and notable changes to their squad going into the auction next month.

Apart from the Dhawan trade-off, Sunrisers have bid farewell to Windies T20I captain Carlos Brathwaite, and English duo Alex Hales and Chris Jordan. Wriddhiman Saha, who has been out with a long-term injury sustained during the last IPL, has also been released.

The big decision, however, is the decision to retain David Warner, who is serving a one-year ban for ball-tampering.

Salary cap available: Rs 9.70 cr

Available slots: 5 (Indian 3, Overseas 2)

Traded In: Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem

Traded Out: Shikhar Dhawan

Retained Players: David Warner, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan, Billy Stanlake, Kane Williamson, Mohammad Nabi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Basil Thampi, Deepak Hooda.

Released Players: Sachin Baby, Tanmay Agarwal, Wriddhiman Saha, Chris Jordan, Carlos Brathwaite, Alex Hales, Bipul Sharma, Syed Mehdi Hasan

Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith Set to Return to IPL

The biggest omission from Rajasthan’s squad ahead of the auction next month is Jaydev Unadkat, who was the most expensive Indian player at the 2018 IPL auction. Unadkat was picked up by Rajasthan last time around for Rs 11.5 crore.

Apart from Unadkat, the Royals have released nine other players, which include 5 international players.

Salary cap available: Rs 20.95 cr

Available slots: 9 (Indian 6, Overseas 3)

Retained Players: Ajinkya Rahane, Krishnappa Gowtham, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Gopal, Aryaman Birla, S Midhun, Prashant Chopra, Stuart Binny, Rahul Tripathi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mahipal Lomror, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, Jofra Archer and Ish Sodhi

Released Players: D’Arcy Short, Ben Laughlin, Heinrich Klaasen, Dane Paterson, Zahir Khan, Dushmantha Chameera, Jaydev Unadkat, Anureet Singh, Ankit Sharma and Jatin Saxena.

Mumbai Indians: 10 Players Released

Three-time champions Mumbai Indians have decided to stick with their home-grown talents – Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya – while opting to persist with out of form Windies all-rounder Kieron Pollard, who has been with the franchise since 2010.

Mumbai had bolstered their batting during the trading window with a Rs 2.8 crore deal to land South Africa’s Quinton de Kock from Royal Challengers Bangalore. To off-set the deal, they released Bangladesh seamer Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 2.2 crore) and Sri Lankan off-spinner Akila Dananjaya (Rs 50 lakh).

Due to the now-announced limited role of Australian players in IPL 2019 due to the upcoming World Cup, the Mumbai side have also parted ways with Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins.

Salary cap available: Rs 11.15 cr

Available slots: 7 (Indian 6, Overseas 1)

Traded In: Quinton de Kock

Retained Players: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy, Siddhesh Lad, Aditya Tare, Quinton de Kock, Kieron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Jason Behrendorff.

Released Players: Saurabh Tiwary, Pradeep Sangwan, Mohsin Khan, MD Nidheesh, Sharad Lumba, Tajinder Singh Dhillon, JP Duminy, Pat Cummins, Mustafizur Rahman, Akila Dananjaya