New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS): India’s left-arm fast-bowler Jaydev Unadkat and Australia’s left-arm pace all-rounder Daniel Sams have been released by Lucknow Super Giants. The franchise, though, has retained Kyle Mayers, Quinton de Kock and Mark Wood.

“LSG has built a strong foundation in the past two years and achieved good success. We want to take it to the next level by improving our squad constantly and that is what we will try to achieve in the auction,” said new head coach Justin Langer.

They had previously traded Romario Shepherd to Mumbai Indians, while bringing in Devdutt Padikkal via a trade from Rajasthan Royals, with Avesh Khan moving on to the Jaipur-based franchise. LSG had made it to the playoffs twice – in IPL 2022 and 2023 seasons.

“We have a settled and balanced squad of players who have performed well for us over the last two seasons, and we definitely wanted to retain that core going into IPL 2024 as well. It's always difficult to release players, and I want to say a big thank you to all of them – you will always be part of the Super Giants family and we wish you all the best going forward," said team owner Sanjiv Goenka.

LSG will be looking at strategic buys in the upcoming auction, to be held in Dubai on December 19, to complete a squad ahead of IPL 2024 season.

LSG Retained Players: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal (traded from RR), Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen Ul Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan.

LSG Released Players: Jaydev Unadkat, Daniel Sams, Manan Vohra, Swapnil Singh, Karan Sharma, Arpit Guleria, Suryansh Shedge, Karun Nair, Romario Shepherd (Traded to MI) and Avesh Khan (Traded to RR)