Royal Challengers Bangalore Release Of Retained And Released Players

Ahead of the upcoming auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL), Royal Challengers Bangalore announced the list of their retained and released players.

England star Chris Woakes and former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum headline the list of players released by the three-time finalists. Corey Anderson will also have to find a new team. Royal Challengers Bangalore had bought all the three overseas stars last year.

Among the Indian players, Sarfaraz Khan, who was initially retained last season, has been released alongside the likes of Manan Vohra and Murugan Ashwin.

As expected, the team retained their star batting duo – Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers along with 12 others. Other notable retained players are Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Washington Sundar and Parthiv Patel. Surprisingly, they have also retained Navdeep Saini who did not play any game last season.

The overseas contingent includes Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee and Nathan Coulter-Nile. The franchise had already traded Mandeep Singh for Marcus Stoinis.

With the core of the team retained and an opportunity to build a strong team around it, Royal Challengers Bangalore will be hoping to go all the way this season. One of the perennial underachievers in the league, they have not managed to win the IPL title so far.

Despite having a solid team last year, they had finished at sixth position after winning just six of the 14 games.

Meanwhile, the auction for the upcoming season will take place next month. There are also reports suggesting that IPL could start earlier than usual due to the World Cup.

Retained:

Virat Kohli (c), Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya, Parthiv Patel, Pawan Negi, Umesh Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers, Colin de Grandhomme, Moeen Ali, Tim Southee, Nathan Coulter-Nile

Released:

Brendon McCullum, Chris Woakes, Corey Anderson, Sarfaraz Khan, Murugan Ashwin, Manan Vohra, Aniket Choudhary, Anirudha Joshi, Pavan Deshpande

Traded:

Marcus Stoinis for Mandeep Singh