The T20 league fever has started surrounding the town already. The officials have been preparing strenuously for the upcoming season. The venue for this season is still skeptical due to the global pandemic still doing the rounds. The list of retained and released players of respective teams got announced in January. The opening for the eight Indian T20 League teams to retain players for the Indian T20 League 2021 season was locked on 20 January 2021 as confirmed from the resources.
About 139 players got retained by the mentioned 8 franchises for this season. The teams also let go 57 players from their respective squad.
The list of retained and released players mentioned below:
- Mumbai:-
Retained Players: R. Sharma, A. Tare, AP. Singh, A. Roy, D.Kulkarni, H. Pandya, I. Kishan, J. Bumrah, J. Yadav, K. Pollard, K. Pandya, Q.d. Kock, R. Chahar, Sk. Yadav, T. Boult, C. Lynn, S. Tiwary, M. Khan
Released Players: P. Balwant Rai, D. Deshmukh, L. Malinga, N. Coulter-Nile, J.Pattinson, S. Rutherford, M. McCleneghan
- Chennai:-
Retained Players: MS Dhoni, S. Raina, A. Rayudu, KM. Asif, D. Chahar, D. Bravo, F.D Plessis, I. Tahir, N Jagadeesan, K. Sharma, L. Ngidi, M. Santner, R. Jadeja, R. Gaikwad, S. Thakur, S. Curran, J. Hazlewood, R Sai Kishore
Released Players: K. Jadhav, M. Vijay, H. Singh, P. Chawla, M. Singh, S. Watson
- Rajasthan:-
Retained Players: S. Samson, B. Stokes, J. Archer, J.Buttler, M. Lomror, M. Vohra, M.Markande, R. Tewatia, R. Parag, S.Gopal, R. Uthappa, J. Unadkat, Y. Jaiswal, A.Rawat, K. Tyagi, D.Miller, A. Tye
Released Players: S. Smith, A. Singh, A. Joshi, A. Rajpoot, O. Thomas, S. Singh, T. Curran, V. Aaron
- Delhi:-
Retained Players: S. Iyer, A. Rahane, A. Mishra, A. Khan, A. Patel, H. Patel, I.Sharma, K. Rabada, P. Shaw, R Ashwin, R. Pant, S. Dhawan, S. Hetmyer, M. Stoinis, L.Yadav, A. Nortje, D. Sams, P.Dubey, C. Woakes
Released Players: A. Carey, K. Paul, T. Deshpande, S. Lamichhane, M. Sharma, J. Roy
- Kolkata:-
Retained Players: E. Morgan, A. Russell, D. Karthik, K. Nagarkoti, K. Yadav, L. Ferguson, N. Rana, P. Krishna, R. Singh, S. Warrier, S. Mavi, S. Gill, S. Narine, P. Cummins, R. Tripathi, V. Chakravarthy, T. Seifert
Released Players: C. Green, H. Gurney, M Siddharth, N. Naik, S. Lad, T. Banton
- Bangalore:-
Retained Players: V. Kohli, A.d Villiers, D. Padikkal, Md. Siraj, N. Saini, Washington S., Y. Chahal, J.Phillipe, P. Deshpande, S. Ahmed, A. Zampa, K. Richardson
Released Players: C.Morris, S. Dube, A. Finch, U. Yadav, D. Steyn, Moeen A., Parthiv P., P. Negi, I. Udana, G. Mann
- Punjab:-
Retained Players: KL Rahul, A. Singh, C. Gayle, D. Nalkande, H. Brar, M. Singh, M. Agarwal, M. Shami, M Ashwin, N. Pooran, S. Khan, D. Hooda, I. Porel, R. Bishnoi, C. Jordan, PS. Singh
Released Players: G. Maxwell, S. Cottrell, M. Zadran, H. Viljoen, J. Neesham, K. Gowtham, K. Nair, J. Suchith, T. S Dhillon
- Hyderabad:-
Retained Players: D. Warner, A. Sharma, B. Thampi, Bhuvneshwar K, J. Bairstow, K. Williamson, M. Pandey, M. Nabi, R. Khan, S. Sharma, S. Nadeem, S. Goswami, S. Kaul, K. Ahmed, T Natarajan, V. Shankar, W. Saha, V. Singh, P. Garg, M. Marsh, J.Holder, A. Samad
Released Players: B. Stanlake, S. Bavanaka, F. Allen, S. Yadav, P. Yarra
The bifurcation of the list of players retained is provided below, along with the information of the purse balance of respective teams.
| Teams | No. Of Players | No. Of Overseas Players | Total Money Spent | Auction Purse Left |
| Mumbai | 18 | 4 | 69.65 | 15.35 |
| Chennai | 18 | 7 | 62.10 | 22.90 |
| Rajasthan | 17 | 5 | 50.15 | 34.85 |
| Delhi | 19 | 6 | 72.0982 | 12.9018 |
| Kolkata | 17 | 6 | 74.25 | 10.75 |
| Bangalore | 12 | 4 | 49.10 | 35.90 |
| Punjab | 16 | 3 | 31.80 | 53.20 |
| Hyderabad | 22 | 7 | 74.25 | 10.75 |
| Total | 139 | 42 | 483.39 | 196.60 |
The Indian T20 League Auction for this season is likely to be held on 10th February 2021. The Board of Cricket officials are in talks to settle the event in India but the decision is hanging by a thread due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.