IPL: Kings XI Punjab release veteran batsman David Miller, England's Sam Curran; Chris Gayle retained

Kings XI Punjab have released explosive South Africa batsman David Miller after eight IPL seasons along with Englishman Sam Curran and Australian pacer Andrew Tye. [caption id=“attachment_7657841” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of David Miller. AFP[/caption] Miller went on to become one of the batting mainstays for Kings XI Punjab over the past eight seasons, scoring 1850 runs in 79 games at a strike rate of 138.78. While he could not do much in his opening season, Miller made an impact in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, smashing 416 runs and 446 runs respectively at 150 plus strike rate. “David has been an iconic player for us. He expressed his desire to move on and we respect his decision. We wish him the very best,” KXIP co-owner Ness Wadia told PTI. In 2019, Miller played 10 games scoring 213 runs at a strike rate of 130. Curran, who at Rs 7.2 crore was KXIP’s most expensive foreign buy at the auction ahead of the 2019 season, too has been released. The left-arm pacer took a hat-trick in last year’s IPL. Also released was Tamil Nadu mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who was bought at last year’s auction for a whopping Rs 8.4 crore. Among the retained players is West Indian great and 40-year-old Chris Gayle, who was bought by KXIP at his base price of Rs two core ahead of the 2018 IPL after going unsold twice. “There is no way we could have let him go. He is a champion player,” said Wadia. The auction will be held on 19 December and Wadia said they would go into it with an open mind. Ahead of the IPL players’ transfer window, KXIP had traded Ravichandran Ashwin to Delhi Capitals in return of Rs 1.5 crore and Karnataka spinner Jagadeesha Suchith.