Mumbai, Dec 31 (Cricketnmore): Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn are among the big names released by their Indian Premier League franchises ahead of the 2016 season.
Yuvraj, who was bought by Delhi Daredevils for a whooping Rs.16 crore, has been released ahead of the upcoming IPL 9 edition.
Yuvraj, 34, who played 14 games in the 2015 edition scored just 248 runs at an average of 19, the highest being 57.
Kings XI Punjab released retired India swashbuckling batsman Sehwag. The former Daredevils batsman scored just 99 runs in eight outings in IPL 8.
Star seamer Ishant Sharma, after a sloppy performance in the previous edition where he picked up just one wicket in four matches, was released by his franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad.
South Africa speedster Dale Steyn was also released by Hyderabad after he picked up just three wickets in six matches in IPL 8.
The window for the franchises to retain and release players for the IPL 2016 season closed on Thursday.
The other players who were released by the six franchises are:
Delhi Daredevils: C.M. Gautam, Domnic Joseph Muthuswamy, Jaydev Unadkat, K.K. Jiyaz, Kona Srikar Bharat, Manoj Tiwary, Angelo Mathews, Gurinder Sandhu and Marcus Stoinis.
Kings XI Punjab: Karanveer Singh, Parvinder Awana, Shivam Sharma, Yogesh Golwalkar, Beuran Hendricks, George Bailey and Thisara Perera.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Veer Pratap Singh, Aditya Garhwal, K.C Cariappa, Sumit Narwal, Vaibhav Rawal, Patrick Cummins, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Neesham, Azhar Mahmood and Johan Botha.
Mumbai Indians: Aditya Tare, Abhimanyu Mithun, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Aiden Blizzard, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Ben Hilfenhaus, Colin Munro and Josh Hazlewood.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Vijay Zol, Ashok Dinda, Dinesh Karthik, Iqbal Abdullah, Jalaj Saxena, Manvinder Bisla, Sandeep Warrier, Shishir Bhavane, Subramaniam Badrinath, Yogesh Takawale, Nic Maddinson, Darren Sammy, Rilee Rossouw and Sean Abbott.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Chama Milind, Gade Hanuma Vihari, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Praveen Kumar, Kevin Pietersen and Ravi Bopara.
On the other hand, as many as 101 Indian players including 37 overseas stars were retained by the franchises.
Delhi Daredevils: Amit Mishra, Jayant Yadav, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammad Shami, Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreyas Iyer, Zaheer Khan, Albie Morkel, Imran Tahir, Jean-Paul Duminy, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Quinton de Kock, Travis Head.
Kings XI Punjab: Akshar Rajesh Patel, Anureet Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Manan Vohra, Murali Vijay, Nikhil Shankar Naik, Rishi Dhawan, Sandeep Sharma, Shardul Narendra Thakur, Wriddhiman Saha, David Miller, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Kuldeep Singh Yadav, Manish Pandey, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Sheldon Jackson, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Brad Hogg, Chris Lynn, Morne Morkel, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine.
Mumbai Indians: Akshay Wakhare, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, J. Suchitch, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Rana, Parthiv Patel, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Gopal, Siddhesh Dinesh Lad, Unmukt Chand, Corey Anderson, Keiron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Lendl Simmons, Mitchell McClenaghan.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Abu Nechim Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Hardev Singh, Sarfaraz Naushad Khan, Sreenath Arvind, Varun Aaron, Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal, AB de Villers, Adam Milne, Chris Gayle, David Wiese, Mitchell Starc.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Ashish Reddy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bipul Sharma, Karn Sharma, K.L. Rahul, Naman Ojha, Parvez Rasool, Ricky Bhui, Shikhar Dhawan, Siddharth Kaul, David Warner, Eoin Morgan, Kane Williamson, Moises Henriques, Trent Boult.
Team Pune: Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith.
Team Rajkot: Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, James Faulkner.
Agency