IPL 2021 Players Retention: Rajasthan Royals - Sanju Samson Named Captain, Steve Smith Released

Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Wednesday announced Sanju Samson as the new skipper for the Indian Premier League 2021 season. Australia batsman Steve Smith, who failed to make an impact with bat and captaincy, has been released. RR, who finished last in the 2020 edition released eight players.

The list of foreign players retained includes Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer. All three English players performed well for the Royals in the last tournament. Jofra Archer was the top wicket-taker for the Royals in the 2020 edition with 20 wickets while Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes have also contributed in Rajasthan Royals' important wins in recent past. In addition to the English trio, David Miller and Andrew Tye have also been retained.

Retained players:

Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, 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 Players:

Steve Smith, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Akash Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Anirudha Joshi, Shashank Singh.

Meanwhile, IPL 2021 auctions are set to take place in February and the teams are already starting out to name the players who will be retained this year, and who will go under the hammer. While there are some prominent names that have been released by the squads, once again the focus is on youngsters, that the teams are eyeing. One of them is Kashmir's 19-year-old pacer Mujtaba Yousuf, who has been called by the Mumbai Indians for trials, after his impressive show in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

The pacer bagged five wickets in four matches in the tournament and as per reports, the latter has already moved to Mumbai to prepare for his trials. Also, it was reported that scouts from various teams were present in Bengaluru to spot talent, and that is when Mujtaba's name surfaced.

• IPL 2021
• ipl 2021 players retention
• IPL 2021 retention
• Rajasthan Royals
• Sanju Samson
• steve smith