Chennai Super Kings release three cricketers for IPL 2019

Reigning IPL champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Wednesday announced it has retained 22 players for the 2019 season, releasing only three members from the title-winning squad.

Chennai Super Kings decided to release England fast bowler Mark Wood, Delhi middle-order batsman Kshitiz Sharma, who now plays for Arunachal Pradesh and Bengal’s Kanishk Seth for IPL 2019. They retained all the other 22 members of the squad that won the IPL earlier this year under MS Dhoni’s captaincy.

While Wood played a match – his first in the IPL – before flying back to England for Test preparations, uncapped players  Kshitiz and Kanishk Seth did not get game in IPL’s last season.

All-rounder David Willey, who was drafted in as a replacement of injured Kedar Jadhav, was also retained by the franchise.

Interestingly, CSK did not seek a replacement for New Zealand all-rounder Mitchell Santner, who was ruled out of last IPL even before the tournament began.

CSK, which returned to the IPL after a two-year suspension, had skipper M S Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja prior to the 2018 auction and also used the Right to Match card for Dwayne Bravo and Faf du Plessis.

CSK has a purse of Rs 8.5 crore (Rs 6.5 crore left from the last season and an additional Rs two crore made available to the players this season) heading into the auction.