BENGALURU: The Royal Challengers Bangalore decided to retain their core group from last season ahead of the mini auction to be held next month. Tuesday was the last date for trading and submission of the retained players list by the 10 franchises.
Among the key overseas players to be retained in the Faf du Plessis-led team include Glenn Maxwell, David Willey and Wanindu Hasaranga. While the experienced stars Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik along with key bowlers Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj were among the Indian players who will stay with the Bengaluru-based franchise.
RCB released five players including West Indies middle-order batter Sherfane Rutherford. The 24-year-old, who joined the franchise at his base price of Rs one crore last season, featured in three matches and scored 28 runs. Australian left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff was traded to Mumbai Indians over the weekend.
The other players to be let go were CV Milind and the Karnataka duo of Aneeshwar Gautam and Luvnith Sisodia. The latter picked up an injury at the beginning of the season and Rajat Patidar, was named his replacement. RCB decided to retain Patidar considering his stellar performance during RCB's campaign which ended in the playoffs last season.
In eight matches, the 29-year-old from Madhya Pradesh scored 333 runs including an unbeaten 112.
With the released players, RCB will go into the auction with an additional Rs 2.2 crore in their kitty.
Mike Hesson, Director of Cricket Operations, RCB said, "The player retention process at RCB is robust and exhaustive. We consider and try to cover all aspects to come up with a solid squad. We've got an exceptional bunch of players in the past year, and I would like to congratulate each one of them for their journey and thank them for their contribution to the team. It has been amazing to work with each one of them. However, as we move to prepare for the next IPL, certain conditions and auction dynamics made us retain only so many players and let go of certain combinations. We look forward to an amazing 2023 season with the retained players and hope to add a few quality names in the upcoming auction."
RCB'S KEY PLAYERS
RETAINED: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plesis Glenn Maxwell, David Willey, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mohd Siraj & Harshal Patel.
RELEASED: Sherfane Rutherford (Price: Rs 1 cr); Jason Behrendorff (rs 75 lakh; traded with Mumbai Indians); Aneeshwar Gautam (Rs 20 lakh); Luvnith Sisodia (Patidar as injury replacement); CV Milind (Rs 25 lakh).
8 KARNATAKA PLAYERS RELEASED
Among the biggest names back in the auction pool among Karnataka players is opener Mayank Agarwal, who captained Punjab Kings last season. Agarwal was replaced with Shikhar Dhawan as the skipper recently. Another player has been released Manish Pandey by the Lucknow Super Giants.
Punjab Kings: Mayank Agarwal
Sunrisers Hyderabad: J Suchith, R Samarth, Shreyas Gopal
Lucknow Super Giants: Manish Pandey
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Anneshwar Gautam, Luvnith Sisodia
Rajasthan Royals: Karun Nair
