Player retained by CSK for IPL 2021: Chennai Super Kings release Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla; KKR release Tom Banton

Player retained by CSK for IPL 2021: The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led franchise is said to have released four high-profile players ahead of IPL 2021.

Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders is said to have released England batsman Tom Banton ahead of the auction for the upcoming 14th season of the tournament.

Banton, 22, had made his IPL debut last year after Knight Riders bought him for INR 1 crore in the auction. In the two matches that the right-hand batsman played against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Banton scored 8 and 10 respectively to not justify his selection.

Yet to play competitive cricket barring a couple of warm-up matches in South Africa since IPL 2020, Banton is most likely to put his name back for the auction. Banton, who opted out of the ongoing season of the Big Bash League, might be pondering is that decision worked against his favour or not.

Player retained by CSK for IPL 2021

While Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings haven’t revealed an official list of retained players, it is understood that they have released the senior trio of Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay and Piyush Chawla after veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh announced him ouster earlier in the morning.

With a lowest purse of INR 0.15 crore with them, CSK were always expected to let go of some A-list names especially after their worst-ever season in the UAE just over a couple of months ago.

Having scored 62 runs in five innings at an average and strike rate of 20.66 and 93.93 respectively, Jadhav had become the centre of attraction for trolls after his miserable IPL 2020 season.

Vijay, on the other hand, scored 32 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 74.41 to let down the team management with his below par batting in the powerplay. The 36-year old player opting out of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy further didn’t help his case in earning a retention.

Chawla, who was the most expensive Indian player with a price of INR 6.75 crore in IPL 2020 auction, didn’t delivery as per the expectations as his six wickets in seven T20s came at an average and economy rate of 31.83 and 9.09 respectively.

Second-highest wicket-taker for Gujarat in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy till now, the 32-year old player might well be bought again by Chennai at a lower price.

UPDATE:

In addition to the aforementioned names, Chennai have also released pacer Monu Kumar Singh who had registered bowling figures of 2-0-20-0 in the only match he played in IPL 2020. With former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson retiring from all formats after the last season of IPL, CSK have effectively released six players in total.

CSK retained players IPL 2021

R Sai Kishore, Narayan Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Josh Hazlewood, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi and Sam Curran.