Southee, Shardul, Lockie among players released by KKR ahead of IPL 2024; Rana, Narine, Russell retained

KKR finished at seventh place last season, with six wins and eight losses. They failed to qualify for playoffs.

New Zealand pacer Tim Southee, Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, Indian bowlers Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav are among the players released by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) next year. Among other players released are New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson, Bangladesh opener Litton Das, Namibia star David Wiese and Indian players like Mandeep Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya and Narayan Jagadeesan. WI's Johson Charles has also been released.

Players, who have been retained include skipper Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, and Rinku Singh. KKR finished at seventh place last season, with six wins and eight losses. They failed to qualify for playoffs.

Players released: Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Shardul Thakur, Mandeep Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, N Jagadeesan, David Wiese, Aarya Desai, Litton Das, Johnson Charles, Shakib Al Hasan Players retained: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer, Jason Roy, Anukul Roy, Andre Russel, Venkatesh Iyer, Suyash Sharma, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy. (ANI)