IPL 2018: 5 star performers from last season who were not retained

Ever since the list of retained players for this edition of the IPL was released on January 4, social media has been abuzz, discussing the decisions made by the respective teams. The eight teams that are participating in the 2018 edition retained a total of 18 highly-talented players, sending all the others into the auction pool.

While some retentions were obvious, there were a few big names who did not make it to the retention list. It was surprising to see the teams overlooking their star performers from last season.

Here are a few players who had a great season last year but were not retained by their respective teams.

#5 Hashim Amla

Hashim Amla was one of the biggest surprise packages of the last season. Often considered a master in ODIs and Tests, not many would have expected such a splendid performance from him in the T20 format. In the last edition, he scored 420 runs in just 10 matches.

His average of 60.00 was the highest among all the batsmen playing in the 2017 edition of the IPL. He also had two centuries to show for.

Kings XI Punjab's decision to retain only one player was one of the biggest surprises of the pre-auction retentions. The Punjab team chose to retain only Axar Patel on the back of his consistent performances with the ball and the bat.