Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are one of the most profitable and popular franchises in IPL history and just missed out on playoffs qualification in IPL 2020 which was held in UAE. They also changed their captain with Dinesh Karthik giving the reins to Eoin Morgan.

Ahead of the 2021 IPL auction, KKR, along with other franchises had to submit their list of released and retained players to the BCCI and the IPL GC. They decided to release five of their players with Tom Banton being the big name.

IPL 2021: Chennai Super Kings - List of players retained and released

They decided to retain Pat Cummins, Dinesh Karthik, and other main players, who had done well in the previous two IPL editions.

List of released players- Chris Green, Siddhesh Lad, Nikhil Naik, Harry Gurney, Manimaran Siddharth, and Tom Banton.

Kolkata Knight Riders squad after player retention:

Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Lockie Ferguson, Kuldeep Yadav, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna, and Sandeep Warrier.