New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS): Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have retained Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav and Dinesh Karthik among others ahead of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction, which is expected to be held next month.

Kuldeep played just five matches in the 2020 season before falling out of contention for a spot in the playing XI. He played just one ODI during India's recently concluded tour of Australia and couldn't make it to the playing XI in the four-Test series even after frontline spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were injured.

Questions had been raised over whether Dinesh Karthik will be retained by KKR this season after he was replaced by Eoin Morgan as captain halfway through the 2020 season. Morgan's England team mate Tom Banton are among the six players who have been released by the two-time IPL champions.

Retained players:

Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Ali Khan, Tim Seifert.

Released players:

Tom Banton, Chris Green, Siddhesh Lad, Nikhil Naik, M Siddharth, Harry Gurney