IPL 2020: 5 players who might be released due to their high price tag ahead of the auction

Shimron Hetmyer played for RCB during last season

We are almost a month away from yet another exciting Indian Premier League (IPL) auction. For the first time in the history of IPL, the auction will be conducted in Kolkata on December 19, 2019. Ahead of the new season, the franchises have already made a few trade moves and shuffled their coaching and supporting staff.

The trading window for IPL 2020 will close on November 14, 2019. Hence, we can soon expect the list of released players from each franchise. With several high profile players and expensive signings flopped in the last season, we can expect the franchises to release those players to increase their purse value ahead of the upcoming auction.

Let us look at five such players who might be released due to their high price tag ahead of the upcoming auction.

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#5 Varun Chakravarthy (Kings XI Punjab)

Varun Chakravarthy, the Tamil Nadu spinner, made the headlines last year with his fantastic bowling performances in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2018. With so many experienced players available in the 2018 TNPL player draft, he was surprisingly chosen as the no.1 pick by the Siechem Madurai Panthers franchise.

Hyped as a Mystery Spinner, Varun lived up to the expectations and bamboozled the batsmen throughout the season. He predominantly bowled one over upfront, one in the middle, and two in the slog overs. In 10 matches, he claimed nine wickets and finished the season with an astonishing dot ball percentage of 52.08.

As a result, Varun caught the attention of several IPL franchises. Since R Ashwin, the former Kings XI Punjab captain, watched Varun in close quarters during TNPL 2018, KXIP decided to spend big on Varun and bought him for a massive sum of INR 8.4 crore. Unfortunately, Varun sustained a finger injury ahead of IPL 2019 and managed to play only one game before being ruled out of the entire season.

Since KXIP has traded Ashwin and assembled a new think-tank now, we can expect Varun to be released ahead of the auction.