Chennai Super Kings retained veteran Suresh Raina for the upcoming IPL-14, even as they released off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
The deadline for the eight franchises to submit the lists of retained and released players for the next edition of the lucrative league ended on Wednesday.
Samson was appointed to the top job after RR decided against renewing former skipper Steve Smith's contract. Smith's contract ended in October 2020.
The Australians, smarting from a Test series loss to an injury-plagued India, took a hit as the likes of the explosive Glenn Maxwell and opener Aaron Finch too were released by Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively.
Also released by KXIP were West Indies all-rounder Sheldon Cottrell, Afghanistan's Mujeeb-ur-Rahman and New Zealand's Jimmy Neesham, who underwent a surgery recently to treat an injured finger.
CSK's Singh and Mumbai Indians' Lasith Malinga were among the other big names to be released by their respective sides ahead of next month's auction.
Singh was joined by the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla and Murali Vijay who were also let go by the franchise.
Also released by MI was Sherfane Rutherford, while Delhi Capitals decided to enter the next edition without English batsman Jason Roy, wicketkeeper Alex Carey, leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane and seamer Mohit Sharma.
Malinga had been a prominent part of MI's title-winning campaigns in the past though he was not there last time due to personal reasons.
The seasoned Raina was retained by the Dhoni-led CSK notwithstanding his sudden departure from the last IPL in the UAE.
It is believed the three-time winners decided to continue with Raina in order to bolster the batting order that struggled during a forgettable last season, which culminated in a seventh-place finish and a league-stage elimination for the first time since the tournament's inception in 2008.
The left-handed Raina has been an integral part of the Super Kings from the beginning, emerging as their highest scorer while guiding them to two IPL titles.
Marcus Stoinis made useful contributions in the 2020 edition and helped the Capitals reach their first-ever IPL final.
Batting mostly in the middle order, he amassed 352 runs at an average of 25.14 and a strike rate of 148.52.
With the ball, he took 13 wickets at an economy of 9.53.
With Rs 15 lakh left, the Super Kings had the smallest purse after the last auction and this would significantly improve for next month's auction. Kings XI Punjab had the largest at Rs 16.5 crore before Wednesday.
Before Wednesday's releases, Rajasthan Royals had Rs 14.75 crore, Sunrisers Hyderabad (10.1 crore), Delhi Capitals (9 crore), Kolkata Knight Riders (8.5 crore), Royal Challengers Bangalore (6.4 crore), and Mumbai Indians (1.95 crore).
(With PTI inputs)
Rajasthan Royals
Retained:
Sanju Samson (WK), Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler (WK), Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Robin Uthappa
Released:
Steve Smith, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Akash Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Anirudha Joshi, Shashank Singh
Mumbai Indians
Retained:
Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare (WK), Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan
Released:
Lasith Malinga, Mitch McClenaghan, James Pattinson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sherfane Rutherford, Prince Balwant Rai, Digivijay Deshmukh
Delhi Capitals
Retained:
Shreyas Iyer (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, R. Ashwin, Rishabh Pant (WK), Shikhar Dhawan, Lalit Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Daniels Sams, Anrich Nortje
Released:
Alex Carey, Keemo Paul, Sandeep Lamichhane, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Retained:
David Warner (c), Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Abdul Samad, Mitchell Marsh, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh.
Released:
Sanjay Yadav, B. Sandeep, Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, Yarra Prithviraj
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Retained:
Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Philippe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahamad, Adam Zampa
Released:
Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali, Isuru Udana, Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann, Parthiv Patel.
Kings XI Punjab
Retained:
KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Prabhsimran Singh, Mohammed Shami, Chris Jordan, Darshan Nalkande, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel
Released:
Glenn Maxwell, Karun Nair, Hardus Viljoen, Jagadeesha Suchith, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Sheldon Cottrell, Jimmy Neesham, Krishnappa Gowtham, Tajinder Singh.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Retained:
Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan (c), Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Tom Banton, Varun Chakravarthy.
Released:
M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Siddhesh Lad, Chris Green, Tom Banton.
Chennai Super Kings
Retained:
MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Bravo, Josh Hazlewood, Sam Curran, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, N Jagadeesan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, R Sai Kishore.
Released:
Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, Monu Singh, Shane Watson
