IPL Player Retention 2024 | List of Retained and Released Players

Each year, an auction takes place for the most popular franchise T20 tournament – the Indian Premier League (IPL). Before the auction, franchises will make two lists public – the players retained and the ones released. This year, too, each of the ten franchises has announced retained and released players.

 In this blog, we look at:

• IPL player retention strategy for the 2024 season
• IPL 2024 player retention rules
• Team-wise IPL 2024 player retention
• Franchise with most and least IPL player retention in 2024

IPL Player Retention Strategy

According to the IPL rules, each franchise can retain its entire squad or release it completely. But here lies the difference between the team owners. Some of the franchises, disappointed with the team’s performance, would look to overhaul the entire squad, releasing a big chunk of players. Some conventional team owners want to avoid chopping and changing, retaining the core group of players. However, never in the history of IPL player retention have franchises retained their entire squad or let go of all the players.

IPL 2024 Player Retention Rules

The franchises must submit the retained and released players list a few days before the auction. As mentioned above, franchises can retain and release any number of players. They are also allowed to trade players – one-way or two-way. One-way trade is a player moving to a franchise in an all-cash deal, while two-way trade involves a player swap.

Team-wise IPL Player Retention List:

All ten franchises submitted their retained and released players list on November 26. Apart from Royal Challengers Bangalore letting go of Wanindu Hasaranga and Harry Brook’s exit from Sunrisers Hyderabad, there weren’t many surprises in the retention list. 

Here’s the team-wise IPL 2024 retained and released player list:

Chennai Super Kings 

Retained Players: MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Mitchell Santner, Devon Conway, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Deepak Chahar, Shivam Dube, Mukesh Choudhary, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shaik Rasheed, Simarjeet Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Ajay Mandal

Released Players: Ambati Rayudu, Akash Singh, Kyle Jamieson, Ben Stokes, Bhagath Varma, Subhranshu Senapati, Dwaine Pretorius, Sisanda Magala

Delhi Capitals

Retained Players: Rishabh Pant, David Warner, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Marsh, Anrich Nortje, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Lalit Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Pravin Dubey, Vicky Ostwal, Yash Dhull, Abhishek Porel

Released Players: Mustafizur Rahman, Aman Khan, Rilee Rossouw, Chetan Sakariya, Ripal Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Phil Salt, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Rovman Powell

Gujarat Titans 

Retained Players: Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Kane Williamson, David Miller, Matthew Wade, Joshua Little, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami, Wriddhiman Saha, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Mohit Sharma, R Sai Kishore, B Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, Abhinav Sadarangani

Released Players: Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, KS Bharat, Dasun Shanaka, Shivam Mavi, Odean Smith, Pradeep Sangwan, Urvil Patel

Kolkata Knight Riders 

Retained Players: Shreyas Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Jason Roy, Nitish Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora

Released Players: Shardul Thakur, Aarya Desai, Tim Southee, David Wiese, Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Das, Johnson Charles, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Kulwant Khejroliya, Mandeep Singh, N Jagadeesan 

Lucknow Super Giants 

Retained Players: KL Rahul, Quinton De Kock, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Kyle Mayers, Mark Wood, Naveen Ul Haq, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Amit Mishra, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, Ayush Badoni, Mohsin Khan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Mayank Yadav,  Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Charak

Released Players: Arpit Guleria, Karun Nair, Swapnil Singh, Karan Sharma, Daniel Sams, Jaydev Unadkat, Manan Vohra, Suryansh Shegde

Mumbai Indians 

Retained Players: Rohit Sharma, Tim David, Jason Behrendorff, Dewald Brevis, Romario Shepherd, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Piyush Chawla, Nehal Wadhera, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Shams Mulani, Vishnu Vinod

Released Players: Riley Meredith, Chris Jordan, Sandeep Warrier, Duan Jansen, Tristan Stubbs, Raghav Goyal, Hrithik Shokeen, Jofra Archer, Jhye Richardson, Arshad Khan, Ramandeep Singh

Punjab Kings

Retained Players: Shikhar Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Sikandar Raza, Nathan Ellis, Arshdeep Singh, Rahul Chahar, Jitesh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Prabhsimran Singh, Atharva Taide, Harpreet Bhatia, Rishi Dhawan, Shivam  Singh, Vidwath Kaverappa

Released Players: Shahrukh Khan, Matthew Short, Baltej Dhanda, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mohit Rathee, Raj Angad Bawa 

Rajasthan Royals

Retained Players: Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, Adam Zampa, Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, Sandeep Sharma, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep Sen, Kunal Rathore

Released Players: Jason Holder, Murugan Ashwin, Abdul PA, Joe Root, Akash Vashisht, KC Cariappa, Kuldip Yadav, Obed Mccoy, KM Asif

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Retained Players: Faf Du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Reece Topley, Cameron Green, Will Jacks, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Mohammed Siraj, Rajat Patidar, Akash Deep, Anuj Rawat, Himanshu Sharma, Karn Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Rajan Kumar, Suyash Prabhudessai, Vyshak Vijay Kumar

Released Players: Wayne Parnell, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav, Siddharth Kaul, David Willey, Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Kedar Jadhav, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga

Sunrisers Hyderabad 

Retained Players: Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Marco Jansen, Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Rahul Tripathi, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Sanvir Singh, Shahbaz Ahamad, Upendra Singh Yadav

Released Players: Vivrant Sharma, Adil Rashid, Samarth Vyas, Akeal Hosein, Kartik Tyagi, Harry Brook

The players retained by the franchise won’t go in the player auction set to take place on December 19 in Dubai. Only the released players and those nominated themselves in the auction list will go under the hammer.

Franchise with Most IPL Player Retention in 2024

Three IPL teams – Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, and Punjab Kings – retained the maximum number of players – 19. It means that these three franchises have a clear strategy. Also, they would like to maintain the core of their sides, knowing fully well that the IPL mega auction is two years away.

Franchise with Least IPL Player Retention in 2024

With 13 players, Kolkata Knight Riders has the least number of players retained. The management struggled to pick the right combination of players. During the IPL mega auction 2022, they paid a hefty amount for India cricketer Shreyas Iyer, who would get injured in 2023. It made building their squad difficult. Going into the 2024 auction, they had an inexperienced middle order. The owners had enough of it, so released players are no longer in the scheme.

Concluding Thoughts

It is the retention list that decides which way the auctions are headed. If a star cricketer isn’t on a franchise’s retention list, then it means that he will be available in the auctions. Therefore, the respective franchises can prepare their budget in advance. If a player makes it to the IPL retention list, it proves how loyal the franchise is to him and vice versa. A good example is MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, whose respective franchises have retained the duo since the inception of IPL.

FAQ About IPL Player Retention 2024