Despite his recent return to the national team for the T20 series against Australia, Yuvraj Singh was on Thursday released by the Delhi Daredevils from their squad while pacers Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn were off-loaded by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first trading window for the upcoming ninth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Vetern left-hander Yuvraj, who was bought for a whopping Rs 16 crore by the GMR-owned franchise, turned out to be the biggest flop of IPL 2015 with only 248 runs from 14 matches at an average of less than 20 (19.07).
“Yuvraj Singh is a great player and the reason of releasing him is to rationalise our budget. He is in good form now and has got back to the Indian team. But there were budgetary constraints which led to the decision. I have personally spoken to Yuvraj. There are no hard feelings,” Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua told PTI on Thursday.
As a result, Delhi Daredevils will go into the February auction with a purse of Rs 36.85 crore to spend on salary of players.
“We have also released Angelo Mathews. So we are saving around Rs 23 crores (as Mathews was bought for Rs 7 crore),” said Dua.
{{/usCountry}}“We have also released Angelo Mathews. So we are saving around Rs 23 crores (as Mathews was bought for Rs 7 crore),” said Dua.
{{/usCountry}}Some of the other prominent players to be released are Kings XI Punjab’s captain last year and former Australian skipper George Bailey and Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Dinesh Karthik. Another former captain to bite the dust was West Indies’ Darren Sammy, who was released by Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha and Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood were released by the Mumbai Indians.
In all, Daredevils have released 10 players while Sunrisers and King’s XI Punjab released eight, including Virender Sehwag, who has already called it quits.
RCB have released the maximum of 14 players while Mumbai Indians and KKR released 10 players each.