All the franchisees have announced their lists of retained and released players ahead of the mini-auction for the upcoming 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
King XI Punjab (KXIP) head coach Anil Kumble said the side has retained only their core team for the IPL 2021.
The KXIP led by KL Rahul has on Wednesday (January 20) retained 16 players of their IPL 2020 squad with the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and Jimmy Neesham released from the squad ahead of the forthcoming IPL 2021.
Read Also: IPL 2021: Franchise-wise list of all players released and retained
After KXIP released the list, Kumble said the plan was to keep the core team and fill those gaps in the upcoming auction in order to have a solid team going into the IPL 2021.
Kumble said in a video shared by the KXIP on its official Twitter handle on Wednesday: “After yesterday`s historic Test victory in Australia, we are all excited about the result, having said that it is also that time of the year where IPL preparations kick-start for the new season 2021 IPL.
So today, we have retained 16 players out of the 25-member squad that we had last season. So, the plan is to fill those gaps in the coming auction so that we will be a solid team going into the 2021 IPL.”
The coach further added, “The plan was to keep the core team and make sure that players who are part of the last season continue into this season as well. We believe that this group along with whoever we will pick in the auction will be able to turn things around for the side.
It is important for us to look to keep the squad similar and hope for better performance in the coming season.”
Noteworthy, KXIP finished the IPL 2020 season at the sixth spot while the franchise made their only final in the 2014 season of the IPL, losing the match to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
The franchise hasn’t won the IPL trophy yet.
Here’s the list of Retained players: Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, KL Rahul, Nicholas Pooran, Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Chris Jordon, Darshan Nalkande, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel, Mohammad Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, and Murugan Ashwin.
Released players: Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman, Jimmy Neesham, Hardus Viljoen, K Gowtham, Karun Nair, Jagadeesha Suchith, Tejinder Singh.
(With ANI Inputs)
