IPL Auction 2020: List of players released and retained by Kings XI Punjab after the trade window
Kings XI Punjab have released left-hand batsman David Miller along with England all-rounder Sam Curran and Australia fast bowler Andrew Tye ahead of the IPL 202 Auction. Miller, who represented Kings XI Punjab for eight seasons in the IPL cemented his place as one of the crowd and franchise favourites, scoring 1850 runs in 79 games at a strike-rate of 138.78.
Co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, Ness Wadia, thanked David Miller for his incredible service to the franchise and said that it was the player's decision to move on and play for a different club in the next season. He said,
“David has been an iconic player for us. He expressed his desire to move on and we respect his decision. We wish him the very best.”
In the last season of the IPL, Miller scored 213 runs in 10 games and an impressive strike-rate of 129.8. Miller's best performances for the franchise came during the 2013 and 2014 seasons of IPL when he scored 416 and 446 runs respectively.
Mystery spinner from Tamil Nadu, Varun Chakravarthy, was also released by the franchise. Interestingly, Chakravarthy was bought for an astronomical price of INR 8.4 crores. However, swashbuckling opener Chris Gayle was retained by the franchise and Wadia made it pretty clear that the West Indian was in their plans and won't be let go so easily. He said,
“There is no way we could have let him go. He is a champion player.”
Kings XI Punjab were in the news throughout the trading season with the transfer of former franchise captain Ravichandran Ashwin to Delhi Capitals for INR 1.2 crores and Karnataka spinner Jagadeesha Suchith in return.
KXIP took to Twitter to announce the list of retained players. They are left with INR 42.7 crores going into the auction.
Also see - IND vs BAN schedule 2019
List of players retained by KXIP
KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Mohammed Shami, Nicholas Pooran, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Hardus Viljoen, Darshan Nalkande, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin, Jagdeesha Suchith (Traded in) and Krishnappa Gowtham (Traded in).
List of players released by KXIP
Chakravarthy, Andrew Tye, Sam Curran, Simran Singh, David Miller, Moises Henriques and Agnivesh Ayachi.