IPL Auction 2020: 3 teams who released least players
The trade window for IPL 2020 closed on 14th November while the franchises had to submit their respective retention lists before 5 PM on the 15th.
Royal Challengers Bangalore made the headlines by doing away with 12 of their squad members from IPL 2019. The Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals also released a bunch of players from their teams. One should note that all the three aforementioned franchises had finished in the bottom 4 of the points table in IPL 2019 and thus, the fans expected them to end their association with the underperforming players.
On the other hand, there were quite a few teams who retained their core from the previous season. We take a look at the three teams who released the least players before the auction.
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#3 Kings XI Punjab - 7
Kings XI Punjab have raised a few eyebrows by releasing the quartet of David Miller, Moises Henriques, Sam Curran and Andrew Tye after the trade window. While Miller had been struggling with his form in the past few seasons, Henriques never got a chance to prove his worth. The other two foreign names on the list, Tye and Curran had failed to curtail the runs in the slog overs.
Besides the overseas stars, KXIP have also ended their association with the domestic players Varun Chakravarthy, Prabhsimran Singh and Agnivesh Ayachi. It is surprising to note that the 2014 IPL runners-up have kept Hardus Viljoen in the side because the South African pacer had picked up 7 wickets in 6 games at an expensive economy rate of 9.65 while playing for Punjab in IPL 2019.
As they had released Ravichandran Ashwin during the trade window, KL Rahul is expected to take over the reins of the franchise this year.
Players released: David Miller, Moises Henriques, Sam Curran, Andrew Tye, Varun Chakravarthy, Prabhsimran Singh, Agnivesh Ayachi.