The 14th season of the Indian Premier League is set to commence from April-May. But Thursday is going to be a big day for a lot of cricketers. 20th January is the last day for each IPL franchise to decide which players they want to retain and which they want to release. At 6 pm, there will be a show on Star Sports Network that would release the details of the players which are to be released.
There were various rumors about a lot of players that are to be released. There were reports that Rajasthan Royals might release their captain Steven Smith. They are currently paying 12.5 crore rupees to keep Smith in their team, but last year RR’s performance was pretty average.
Big Changes in the CSK side?
Chennai Super King’s performance has not been up to the mark in the las few seasons. In the last IPL they even failed to reach the payoffs stage for the first time. It’s been told that Piyush Chawla and Murali Vijay are the ones who are sure to lose their place in CSK. Apart from them, Suresh Raina and Kedar Jadhav’s future too lies in balance. Harbhajan Singh has already declared that he won't be a part of CSK this season.
Kings XI Punjab is another team which is looking to make changes in their squad. They have made up their mind to release Karun Nair, while the franchise has avoided to comment on Glenn Maxwell’s future.
There were speculations that Dinesh Karthik might be released by KKR, but KKR has put an end to all discussions by deciding to retain Karthik.
There are reports that the BCCI might conduct a mini-auction in the month of February. But, no date has been specified yet.