IPL 2021: The Mini-auction for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League is just a couple of days away. All the franchises will be looking to strengthen their squads ahead of the 14th season of the IPL. Before the IPL 2021 season, Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) have decided to release the big-hitting Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell.
Maxwell had a woeful campaign in IPL 2020 in UAE last year where he managed to score only 108 runs in 13 games without managing a single fifty. Even with the ball, Glenn Maxwell could not set the stage on fire.
The Australian all-rounder took just 3 wickets in the whole tournament and averaged 56.33. He also gave away runs at an economy rate of 8.05. And, after such poor returns, the Punjab Kings side has decided to let go of the all-rounder ahead of the IPL auctions.
However, Ahead of the IPL 2021 player auction, the Australian star opened up on playing for Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Maxwell expressed interest in playing for RCB in the IPL and said it will be nice for him to work under Kohli. Royal Challenger Bangalore, at the same time would be looking to add some firepower in their middle-order at the auction and Maxwell might fit the bill perfectly for the Kohli-led side, who released as many as ten players ahead of the auction including the likes of Aaron Finch and Chris Morris among others.
“I get along with Virat pretty well. It’ll be certainly nice to work under Virat and will certainly enjoy batting with him – that’s for sure,” Maxwell said.
“It will be awesome to work with him, and he’s always been really helpful to me along the journey. Whenever I’ve caught up with him, he’s been brilliant. So to be able to work with him first hand will be pretty cool,” he added.
Glenn Maxwell has been one of the costliest players in the IPL over the years. He has represented 3 sides so far – Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals (Daredevils) and Kings XI Punjab. He was bought for Rs 9 crore in the IPL 2018 auction by Delhi Capitals but they released him after just one season. Ahead of IPL 2020, Maxwell was bought for Rs 10.75 crore after fending off competition from the Capitals.
RCB will be heading into the IPL 2020 auction with the third biggest purse of Rs 35.2 crore as 292 players are set to go under the hammer in Chennai on February 18.
RCB IPL 2021 Retained and Released players
Retained Players
Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Md. Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Phillipe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson.
Released Players
Chris Morris, Shivam Dube, Aaron Finch, Umesh Yadav, Dale Steyn, Moeen Ali, Parthiv Patel, Pawan Negi, Isuru Udana, Gurkeerat Mann.
