Heading into the much-anticipated IPL 2024 auction, all 10 franchises have made strategic decisions on player retention and releases, setting the stage for an intense bidding showdown. The spotlight is on Mumbai Indians’ significant move, reacquiring Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans after his two-season stint with GT. In an interesting twist, Gujarat Titans have named Shubman Gill as their new skipper.

Among other headline-worthy transactions, Delhi Capitals have chosen to retain Rishabh Pant, despite uncertainties surrounding his return to the field following a car crash in December 2022 that forced him to miss the entire IPL 2023 season.

Let’s delve into the franchise-specific details:

Delhi Capitals:

Retained Players: Rishabh Pant, Pravin Dubey, David Warner, Vicky Ostwal, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje, Abishek Porel, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Lungi Ngidi, Lalit Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Mitchell Marsh, Ishant Sharma, Yash Dhull, Mukesh Kumar.

Released Players: Rilee Rossouw, Chetan Sakariya, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Phil Salt, Mustafizur Rahman, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ripal Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Aman Khan, Priyam Garg.

Rajasthan Royals:

Retained Players: Sanju Samson (C), Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Rathore, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Sharma, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa.

Released Players: Joe Root, Abdul Basith, Jason Holder, Akash Vashisht, Kuldip Yadav, Obed McCoy, Murugan Ashwin, KC Cariappa, KM Asif.

Traded: Avesh Khan

Punjab Kings:

Retained Players: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh.

Released: Mohit Rathee, Raj Bawa, Shahrukh Khan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Baltej Singh.

Chennai Super Kings:

Retained players: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway (wk), Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana.

Released players: Ben Stokes, Dwaine Pretorius, Bhagath Varma, Subhranshu Senapati, Ambati Rayudu, Kyle Jamieson, Akash Singh, Sisanda Magala.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Retained players: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer, Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.

Released players: Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Das, Aarya Desai, David Wiese, Narayan Jagadeesan, Mandeep Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Johnson Charles.

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Released players: Harry Brook, Samarth Vyas, Kartik Tyagi, Vivrant Sharma, Akeal Hosein, Adil Rashid.

Retained players: Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram (c), Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips, Heinrich Klaasen, Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Upendra Singh Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen, Washington Sundar, Sanvir Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Traded players: Shahbaz Ahmed (from Royal Challengers Bangalore).

Lucknow Super Giants:

Released players: Jaydev Unadkat, Daniel Sams, Manan Vohra, Swapnil Singh, Karan Sharma, Arpit Guleria, Suryansh Shedge, Karun Nair.

Retained players: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen ul Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan.

Traded players: Devdutt Padikkal (from Rajasthan Royals).

Gujarat Titans:

Released players: Yash Dayal, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Pradeep Sangwan, Odean Smith, Alzarri Joseph, Dasun Shanaka.

Retained players: Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, Kane Williamson, Abhinav Manohar, B Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma.

Traded players: Hardik Pandya (traded to Mumbai Indians).

Mumbai Indians:

Released players: Mohd. Arshad Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Hrithik Shokeen, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Tristan Stubbs, Duan Jansen, Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith, Chris Jordan, Sandeep Warrier.

Retained players: Rohit Sharma (c), Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, N. Tilak Verma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Cameron Green, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya, Piyush Chawla, Ak