Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Wednesday grabbed the headlines as they released their captain Steve Smith and announced Sanju Samson as the new skipper for the Indian Premier League 2021 season.

As one of the best modern-day batsmen, Smith had a relatively low-key season in the last edition of the tournament and failed to put a great impact on the team. 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.

Rajasthan Royals 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.

Rajasthan Royals released Players: Steve Smith, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Akash Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Anirudha Joshi, Shashank Singh.

Delhi Capitals, meanwhile, who reached the final of the tournament for the first time in 2020, have retained batsman opening batsman Prithvi Shaw despite his disastrous performance.

On the other hand, they released Jason Roy, who is regarded as one of the best white-ball batsmen currently.

The Delhi-based franchise has retained a total of 19 players which includes six overseas players.

The franchise has released six players which include two Indian and four overseas players. Indian duo Mohit Sharma and Tushar Deshpande, West Indies’ Keemo Paul, Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane, Australia’s Alex Carey and England’s Jason Roy have all been released by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2021 auction.

Delhi Capitals Retained Players: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Lalit Yadav, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, Daniel Sams

Delhi Capitals Released Players: Mohit Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Keemo Paul, Sandeep Lamichhane, Alex Carey, Jason Roy.