Complete list of players released by IPL teams and the budget available

Yuvraj Singh

A total of 55 players have been released on December 5 by the IPL teams, with Delhi Daredevils (13) contributing the most and Kings XI Punjab (3) and Kolkata Knight Riders (3) the least. It has resulted in big names such as Yuvraj Singh, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, Albie Morkel, Brad Hodge and Aaron Finch all being back in the IPL 2015 Auction list.

Never has so much action been seen in the player transfer/release window.

The Delhi Daredevils chief executive Hemant Dua said that the team management is looking to completely revamp the team following a wooden spoon finish last season. He said: “We are looking at rebuilding our squad. We have got a squad (after the cuts) that we believe forms the core. The franchise has decided to release certain players because we believe that the money will give us a significant purse that will help us buy new players to strengthen the squad for the upcoming season."

A Kings XI Punjab official, on the other hand, said that the dropped trio don’t feature in their plans anymore. “It is to do with Twenty20 and performance. Pujara is really a big name for Test cricket. He is a solid player. He does not fit with the current team's composition in his role as a Twenty20 batsman. That is the same reason for the other two also."

Given below is the complete list of players released on December 5 and the status of the franchises’ respective auction purses:

Rajasthan Royals (Budget available: Rs. 13 crore) – Brad Hodge, Unmukt Chand, Kevon Cooper, Ankit Sharma, Amit Sharma, Ankush Bains

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Budget available: Rs. 21 crore) – Yuvraj Singh, Muttiah Muralitharan, Albie Morkel, Ravi Rampaul, Sachin Rana, Shadab Jakati, Tanmay Mishra

Kolkata Knight Riders (Budget available: Rs. 13 crore) – Jacques Kallis, Debabrata Das, Sayan Mondal

Kings XI Punjab (Budget available: Rs. 11.8 crore) – Cheteshwar Pujara, L Balaji, Murali Kartik

Delhi Daredevils (Budget available: Rs. 40 crore) – Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay, Jayadev Unadkat, Ross Taylor, Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Rahul Sharma, Wayne Parnell, J Neesham, Siddarth Kaul, Rahul Shukla, HS Sharath, Milind Kumar

Chennai Super Kings (Budget available: Rs. 5 crore) – Ben Hilfenhaus, John Hastings, Vijay Shankar, David Hussey

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Budget available: Rs. 20.85 crore) – Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Darren Sammy, Irfan Pathan, Jason Holder, Venugopal Rao, Brendan Taylor, P Parameswaran, Anirudha S, Manprit Juneja, Amit Paunikar

Mumbai Indians (Budget available: Rs. 8 crore) – Michael Hussey, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Jalaj Saxena, Ben Dunk, Apurva Wankhede, CM Gautam, Krishmar Santokie and Sushant Marathe

Note: Michael Hussey of Mumbai Indians and Amit Paunikar of Sunrisers Hyderabad have been added to the list of players released, making it a total of 55 – as against a total of 53 as mentioned earlier.