Banned Australian vice-captain David Warner, who was not allowed to take part in last IPL, has been retained by the Sunrisers Hyderabad even as the runner-ups of last season decided to let go Indian Test keeper Wriddhiman Saha for IPL 2019.
Warner's ban, which he received for his involvement in the ball-tampering incident in South Africa, is set to finish in March next year.
England’s Chris Jordan, Alex Hales and West Indies T20 captain Carlos Brathwaite were the other overseas cricketer released by Sunirsers. The list of Indian released cricketers include Sachin Baby, Tanmay Agarwal, Bipul Sharma and Mehdi Hasan apart from Saha.
Saha was in and out of the Sunrisers side because of various injuries before finally being ruled out of the tournament in playoffs. He was replaced by his Bengal teammate Shreevats Goswami, who has been retained by SRH. Saha, who had a surgery on his shoulder in June, is currently undergoing a rehab and is expected to return to the cricket field in December.
Sunrisers had earlier traded India opener Shikhar Dhawan with three cricketers - Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, and the left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem – from Delhi Daredevils.
With both Warner and Williamson retained, it will be interesting to see who is appointed as the leader of the franchise for IPL 2019.
Addition/Trade: Shikhar Dhawan for Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, and the left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem
Retained: Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Khaleel Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan, Billy Stanlake, David Warner, Kane Williamson, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Shakib Al Hasan
Released: Sachin Baby, Tanmay Agarwal, Wriddhiman Saha, Chris Jordan, Carlos Brathwaite, Alex Hales, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan