IPL History: 3 stars who returned to an IPL franchise after a gap of 4 years or more

The Indian Premier League has been the marquee T20 league in the world ever since the BCCI initiated it in the year 2008.

In the earlier seasons, the eight city-based franchises focused a lot on getting international stars into their squads. However, as the league progressed, the franchises learnt that it is important to have talented youngsters in the team too. So a lot of them bid adieu to their star players under the IPL retention policy.

The teams always try to get the best possible squad within the budget constraints. Thus, we see a lot of changes and trades taking place every year in the pre-season period.

While some teams sever ties permanently with their stars, there have also been a few franchises who bought their ex-players back after a huge gap of 5 years or more.

Here's a list of those stars who returned to their ex-franchises after spending 5 or more years away:

#3 Gautam Gambhir

Gambhir played his last ever IPL season for Delhi

Gautam Gambhir started off his IPL journey as a part of the Delhi franchise in 2008. He spent three seasons there before he moved to the Kolkata Knight Riders.

The hot-headed Gambhir had a very successful stint as the captain of Kolkata as he helped them win the IPL title twice during his reign. In 2018 however, he decided to end his association with the Knight Riders and return to Delhi once again to play his final season.

While Gambhir may have expected his story to end as a fairytale, what happened was a complete disaster. After Delhi failed to make any kind of impact in the early part of the 2018 season, Gambhir himself stepped down from captaincy mid-season and was soon released by the franchise.

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#2 Mandeep Singh

Mandeep Singh playing for KXIP (picture courtesy: BCCI/iplt20.com)

Very few people may know that Mandeep Singh's first IPL franchise was Kolkata Knight Riders. Yes, the Jalandhar lad kicked off his IPL career as a part of KKR in 2009, but he never got a chance to play for them. Hence, he switched to Kings XI Punjab in 2010 and stayed with them till 2014.

Mandeep even won the IPL Emerging Player of the Year Award once, proving his credentials as a match-winner. But at the end of the 2014 season he joined the Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he spent four seasons without ever cementing his place in the team.

Thereafter, he was traded back to Kings XI Punjab in the 2019 preseason, a move which marked Mandeep's return to his home franchise after five years. KXIP have not been able to use Mandeep to his full potential this year either, as the primarily top order batsman is being played in the middle order.

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#1 Dale Steyn

Dale Steyn (Image Courtesy: BCCI/IPL220.com)

Dale Steyn, the Proteas legend, made a heroic return to his first ever IPL team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, in IPL 2019.

The 'Steyn Gun' had made his IPL debut as an RCB player in 2008 and continued to be an integral part of the team till 2010. He was released by Bangalore in 2011 which led the Deccan Chargers to sign him.

After Deccan Chargers became defunct, Steyn represented the Sunrisers Hyderabad for 3 years. His injury woes led to his release once again as Steyn landed up in the Gujarat Lions in IPL 2016. He played only one match before being released at the end of the year.

Steyn missed the next 2 seasons before making a return to the cash-rich league this year in RCB colors. He helped in rejuvenating the demotivated RCB camp but unfortunately was ruled out of the tournament after just 2 matches because of an injury.

Nevertheless, those 2 matches were enough for Steyn to solidify his place in the hearts of RCB fans as well as captain Virat Kohli.

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