All 10 IPL franchises have been told to announce the list of the released and retained players by mid-November, with the IPL 2023 auction, which will be a mini-auction, set to take place in mid-December.
The big news reported by Cricbuzz is that Delhi Capitals might release bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur, who is currently in Australia with the world cup squad as a reserve player.
Why are Delhi Capitals releasing Shardul Thakur?
The Rishabh Pant-led franchise are planning to release Shardul Thakur because they feel that they could get Thakur back in the auction at a lesser price. That’s a big gamble which the Capitals may take because then in the auction, they’ll be competing with 9 other franchises, who’d want to up Thakur’s price knowing that DC would go after him.
This also gives an opportunity to Chennai Super Kings to rope back Shardul Thakur. CSK, after a poor IPL 2022 season, are expected to release some players and make space in their purse. So they could buy back Thakur, who was with them from 2018 to 2021, making significant contributions in their winning two titles.
Shardul Thakur, who has been a regular feature of India’s white-ball teams until the IPL 2022, was bought by the Capitals for a handsome sum of 10.75 crores at the last mega-auction. The cricketer had an ordinary IPL 2022 season: 15 wickets in 14 matches at an economy of 9.78 and scored 120 runs at a strike rate of 137.
“It is reported that Thakur could be released by the Delhi franchise which may try to buy him back for a lesser price,” a report in Cricbuzz said, adding that the likes of KS Bharat (who was bought for 2 crore) and Mandeep Singh (1.1 crore) may also be released.
KS Bharat, Rishabh Pant’s backup keeper, didn’t get to play in a single game and Mandeep scored 18 runs in three matches.
The auction is likely to be held on December 16 with either Istanbul in Turkey or Bengaluru being the venue. There has not been any official trading yet in the trade window which has been open since the IPL ended.
Delhi Capitals had finished 5th in the points table in IPL 2022, missing out on qualification by 2 points in their last game, where they suffered a defeat to Mumbai Indians.
