In preparation for the Indian Premier League 2023 Auction, Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday made public their list of retained players. The franchise kept a total of 16 players, including 12 Indians and 4 players from abroad, and discharged a total of 9 players, including 4 Indians and 5 players from abroad.
The team has kept its captain Sanju Samson, along with England's T20 World Cup-winning captain Jos Buttler, India's Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, an experienced New Zealand pacer, Indian internationals Navdeep Saini, Prasidh Krishna, and Devdutt Padikkal, as well as Shimron Hetmyer and Obed McCoy from the West Indies.
Young Indian stars Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Kuldeep Sen, left-arm fast bowler Kuldip Yadav, spinner KC Cariappa, and wicket-keeper batsman Dhruv Jurel have all been kept on.
In addition to discussing his team's reasoning for the retention process, Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara also discussed how difficult it was for the franchise to make some decisions after the Royals finished as Runners Up in the previous edition.
He stated: "Despite having a fantastic season the previous year, we ultimately lost the Final. The crew we've had has been exceptional in every category, and we are excited about the potential of keeping the core group that has made this franchise so successful. In order to maintain your position at the top, a high performance team must continue to grow and look for opportunities that will benefit the whole group. We have made some choices that give us more flexibility in the Auction so that we can compete with other teams and choose players who we believe can improve this squad as part of our ambition to go above and beyond in the IPL 2023."
"As you might expect, we are obviously devastated to be parting ways with some of the players who were crucial to our setup both on and off the field last season. We want to take this opportunity to thank them for their enormous contribution to the Royals. We hope to run into them soon and wish them the very best for the future."
Retained- Indians: Sanju Samson, Ravichandra Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prasidh Krishna, Devdutt Padikkal, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Sen, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Kuldip Yadav, KC Cariappa, Dhruv Jurel
Overseas: Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Obed McCoy
Released- Indians: Karun Nair, Anunay Singh, Tejas Baroka, Shubham Garhwal,
Overseas: James Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Corbin Bosch