The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises announced their retentions ahead of the mini-auction in February before the 2021 season. 

There were some big players released by their respective teams. Defending champions Mumbai Indians released seven players while retaining a majority of their core that helped them win in 2020, while last year’s finalists Delhi Capitals let go of five players. Apart from players who were released, the first trades ahead of the 2021 season happened between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore with Daniel Sams and Harshal Patel heading to the Virat Kohli-led team. Here is a look at how the squads look like now:

Mumbai Indians

Retained: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare (WK), Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni and Mohsin Khan.

Released: Lasith Malinga, Mitch McClenaghan, James Pattinson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sherfane Rutherford, Prince Balwant Rai and Digivijay Deshmukh.

Delhi Capitals

Retained: Shreyas Iyer (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, R. Ashwin, Rishabh Pant, Shikhar Dhawan, Lalit Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Daniels Sams and Anrich Nortje.

Released: Alex Carey, Keemo Paul, Sandeep Lamichhane, Tushar Deshpande and Mohit Sharma.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Retained: David Warner (C), Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T. Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Abdul Samad, Mitchell Marsh, Priyam Garg and Virat Singh.

Released: Sanjay Yadav, B. Sandeep, Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen and Yarra Prithviraj.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Retained: Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal,

Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Philippe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahamad and Adam Zampa. 

Released: Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali, Isuru Udana, Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann & Parthiv Patel.

Kings XI Punjab

Retained: K.L. Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Prabhsimran Singh, Mohammed Shami, Chris Jordan, Darshan Nalkande, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar and Ishan Porel.

Released Players: Glenn Maxwell, Karun Nair, Hardus Viljoen, Jagadeesha Suchith, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Sheldon Cottrell, Jimmy Neesham, Krishnappa Gowtham and Tajinder Singh.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Retained Players: Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan (C), Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Tom Banton and Varun Chakravarthy.

Released Players: M. Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Siddhesh Lad, Chris Green and Tom Banton.

Chennai Super Kings

Retained Players: M.S. Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Bravo, Josh Hazlewood, Sam Curran, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, N Jagadeesan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur and R. Sai Kishore.

Released Players: Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Kedar Jadav, Murali Vijay, Monu Singh and Shane Watson.

Rajasthan Royals

Retained: 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 and Robin Uthappa.

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