IPL 2023: 5 most surprising releases by franchises ahead of auction
Not many had anticipated these moves.
The road to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 has officially begun with franchises retaining and releasing players from their squad ahead of the auction for the upcoming edition. On Tuesday (15th November), all ten franchises submitted their respective list of released players ahead of the auction scheduled for 23rd December.
A total of 85 players were released as teams have removed Deadwood from their squads. In the process, they have also freed some funds to sign the players in the auction ahead of IPL 2023. While there were some usual suspects on the retention list of the franchises, there were some major surprises as well.
In this post, we will take a look at the five most surprising releases by franchisees ahead of the auction for IPL 2023.
5. Kane Williamson
Sunrisers Hyderabad retained Kane Williamson in the IPL 2022 ahead of David Warner and appointed him as their permanent skipper. However, the move didn’t work as the Kiwi had his worst-ever IPL season as he could only manage 216 runs at an average of 19.64 and a miserable strike rate of 93.51.
However, the release of Kane Williamson is still a surprise to many as Sunrisers Hyderabad showed a lot of faith in him in the previous edition. Furthermore, he is a world-class player and a shrewd captain. It will be tough for the Orange Army to find such a leader in the mini-auctions.
Despite all of this, Williamson’s release makes sense when you look at the price tag. There is a high chance that Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to re-sign their skipper for a lower price in the auctions.
