Yuvraj, Ishant, Steyn off-loaded by IPL franchises

Sunrisers Hyderabad surprised quite a few by opting to release the fast bowling duo of Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn, while they also let go of England discard Kevin Pietersen.

Yuvraj Singh along with fast bowlers Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn were among the big names released by their respective Indian Premier League franchises on Thursday before the window to retain players for the ninth season of the T20 tournament in 2016 closed.

As many as 101 cricketers, including 37 overseas, were retained by the eight IPL franchises.

Yuvraj, who was bought for a massive Rs 16 crore by Delhi Daredevils for IPL 8, and Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews were released, but veteran Zaheer Khan, who retired from international cricket earlier this year, was retained.

Yuvraj, who returned to the Indian team for the T20 leg of the Australian tour, failed to live up to expectations last season, aggregating only 248 runs from 14 matches.

"Yuvraj Singh is a great player and the reason of releasing him is to rationalise our budget. He is in good form now and has got back to the Indian team. But there were budgetary constraints which led to the decision. I have personally spoken to Yuvraj. There are no hard feelings," Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua said.

Delhi Daredevils will be going into the February auction with a purse of Rs 36.85 crore to spend on salary of players, the highest among the eight franchises.

Sunrisers Hyderabad surprised quite a few by opting to release the fast bowling duo of Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn, while they also let go of England discard Kevin Pietersen.

Dinesh Karthik, who was bought for 10.5 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore, was also released.

For Kings XI Punjab, Virender Sehwag, who retired from international cricket recently, was released along with former captain George Bailey.

Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha, Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood were off-loaded by Mumbai Indians.

In all, Daredevils have released 10 players while Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers released eight including Sehwag.

RCB released the maximum of 14 players while Mumbai Indians and KKR released 10 players each.

List of players released by the IPL franchises: