Rajasthan Royals (RR) has named Steve Smith among the 16 retained players for the 12th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Apart from Smith, RR also retained England stars Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi.
D’Arcy Short, Ben Laughlin, Heinrich Klaasen, Dane Paterson, Zahir Khan and Dushmantha Chameera were among the overseas players released, while they also let go of the Indians quartet of Jaydev Unadkat, Anureet Singh, Ankit Sharma and Jatin Saxena.
Unadkat, who was bought for Rs 11.5 crores, suffered a drastic dip in form and was able to take just 11 wickets from 15 games while also proving expensive. Short struggled throughout the last season, scoring 115 runs from seven games at an average of 16.42, while Klaasen, who was brought in as a replacement for banned Smith, had a few opportunities and could manage only 57 runs from four games.
Ajinkya Rahane, Krishnappa Gowtham and Sanju Samson are among the 11 Indian players retained by the franchise, along with Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny and Rahul Tripathi among others.
List of players retained and released by the Rajasthan Royals:
Retained: Ajinkya Rahane, Krishnappa Gowtham, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Gopal, Aryaman Birla, S. Midhun, Prashant Chopra, Stuart Binny, Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Ish Sodhi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mahipal Lomror
Released: D’Arcy Short, Ben Laughlin, Heinrich Klaasen, Dane Paterson, Zahir Khan, Dushmantha Chameera, Jaydev Unadkat, Anureet Singh, Ankit Sharma, Jatin Saxena
