Indian Premier League franchises who are gearing up for the 2017 player auction have released quite a few big names while retaining as many as 140 cricketers including 44 overseas signings.
Dale Steyn (Gujarat Lions), Kevin Pietersen (Rising Pune Supergiants), Trent Boult (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Mitchell Johnson (Kings XI Punjab) and Ishant Sharma (RPS) were among the high-profile players who have lost their contract ahead of the 2017 season, according to list released by the league's official website.
Both the Indian captains Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni have been retained by their respective franchises along with other Indian cricket team regulars.
Dhoni-led RPS have released the most number of players (11) in a bid to come up with a better show in the next edition following their horrid debut season, in which they finished second last.
Here is the list of how the eight teams look like ahead of the 2017 auction.
Rising Pune Supergiants
Current Squad: Dhoni, Rahane, Ashwin, Smith, Du Plessis, Marsh, Khawaja Dinda, Bains, Bhatia, A Sharma, I Pandey, Zampa, Jaskaran, Aparajith, Chahar
Released list: Pietersen, Ishant, Pathan, Perera, RP Singh, Boland, M Ashwin, Handscomb, Tiwary, Morkel, Bailey
Gujarat Lions
Current Squad: Raina, Jadeja, Faulkner, McCullum, Bravo, Finch, D Smith, Karthik, Kulkarni, P Kumar, Tye, Kishan, Sangwan, Kaushik, Jakati, J Shah
Released list: Steyn, Dogra, Dwivedi, Ladda, Tambe, Umang, Mishra, Akshdeep
Kings XI Punjab
Current Squad: Miller, Vohra, Axar, Maxwell, Gurkeerat, Anureet, Sandeep, Shardul, S Marsh, Saha, Vijay, Shankar Naik, Mohit, Stoinis, Cariappa, Jaffer, Sahu, Swapnil, Amla
Released list: Johnson, R Dhawan, Abbott, Behardien
Kolkata Knight Riders
Current Squad: Gambhir, Narine, Russell, Kuldee, Manish, Suryakumar, Chawla, Uthappa, Shakib, Lynn, Umesh , Yusuf, Jackson, Ankit Singh
Released list: Morkel, Hogg, Holder, Munro, Hastings, Unadkat, R Sathish, Manan, Tait
Mumbai Indians
Current Squad: Rohit, Pollard, Malinga, Singh, Rayudu, Bumrah, S Gopal, Simmons, Vinay, Parthiv, McClenaghan, Nitish, Siddhesh, Suchith, Hardik, Buttler, Southee, Jithesh, Krunal, Deepak
Released list: Anderson, De Lange, Unmukt, Akshay, Nathu, Kamath, Guptill, Taylor
Delhi Daredevils
Current Squad: Duminy, Shami, De Kock, Nadeem, Agarwal, J Yadav, A Mishra, Iyer, Zaheer, Billings, Samson, Morris, Brathwaite, Nair, Pant, Milind, S Ahmed, Pratyush
Released list: Coulter-Nile, Tahir, Paris, Negi, Suyal, Herwadkar, Lomror
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Current Squad: Kohli, De Villiers, Gayle, Starc, Chahal, Patel, Mandeep, Milne, Sarfaraz, Aravind, Jadhav, Watson, Binny, Badree, Head, Sachin, Abdulla, Rahul, A Khan, Shamsi
Released list: Aaron, Nechim, Wiese, Richardson, Vikramjeet, Dubey, Karnewar, Tokas, Rasool, Jordan
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Current Squad: Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar, Warner, Henriques, Ojha, Bhui, Williamson, Kaul, Bipul, Nehra, Yuvraj, Cutting, Mithun, Mustafizur, Sran, Hooda, Vijay
Released list: Karn, Reddy, Morgan, Boult, T Suman, Tare
