IPL 2019: 4 overseas players who should have been released by their teams
The IPL 2019 is set to have an early start next year owing to the World Cup. The franchises have already started to make preparations for the upcoming season and announced the list of players who they have retained and those who they have released, ahead of the auction which is scheduled to take place mid- December.
Many surprises awaited fans on seeing the retention list as many prominent names were released while few poor performers were retained. Glenn Maxwell (DD), Aaron Finch (KXIP), Yuvraj Singh (KXIP), Brendon Mccullum (RCB) and Mitchell Starc (KKR) were a few big names to be released.
While most of the released players will feature in the auction, there were a few players who were surprisingly retained.
Here are the players that each team needed to release.
#1 Chennai Super Kings- Sam Billings
Sam Billings won CSK a crucial game after a Kolkata Knight Riders and Andre Russell blitzkrieg left them with a big total to chase down. He didn't make any significant contributions after that and was a player who didn't fit into the side. The team already has many all-rounders like him and he wasn't the first choice to play. In the 10 matches, he got to play 8 innings and managed just 108 runs at a poor average of 13.50.
Releasing Billings would have freed up some purse though CSK already has quite some money remaining. More importantly, it would free up an overseas slot which CSK could use to strengthen their pace attack or buy a quality all rounder. While players like Karn Sharma and Harbhajan Singh deserved to be released, no move would have benefited CSK as much as this one.