Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the upcoming IPL 2024 mini-auction, defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday released English all-rounder Ben Stokes and seven other players, including Odisha cricketer Subhranshu Senapati.
The other six players are Sisanda Magala, Dwaine Pretorius, Kyle Jamieson, Bhagath Verma, Akash Singh, Ambati Rayudu.
According to reports, the Chennai-based team finalised the list, carefully considering the availability of those who may have commitments or injury concerns, before the impending deadline on Sunday. While Rayudu had announced his retirement after winning the final last year, Stokes recently opted out of the upcoming season to manage his workload and fitness, having suffered knee issues since the start of 2022.
CSK signed Subhranshu, a middle-order batter and one of the most consistent performers for Odisha in domestic cricket, at his base price of Rs 20 lakh during the 2022 edition of the league. Though he did not play in any game in his debut campaign, he was retained for the 2023 edition, when he was applauded for his valiant effort to catch Rinku Singh of Kolkata Knight Riders on the boundary line at Eden Gardens while substituting on the field for Ajinkya Rahane.
Subhranshu was the fourth cricketer from Odisha after Haladhar Das, Biplab Samantaray and Abhishek Rout to gain an entry into the world’s richest league.
CSK Retained Players
MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway (wk), Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana.
CSK now has a purse of Rs 32.1 crore after declaring the released and retained list. The franchise has thus far opted against trading any player ahead of the mini-auction, which is scheduled to take place at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai on December 19.
Each team will have a budget of Rs 100 crore, an increase from the previous year’s Rs 95 crore.
