IPL Auction 2020: 5 players who shouldn't have been released 

Friday was a busy day for the IPL teams as they submitted the final list of released players ahead of next month's auction. The teams were given an opportunity to increase the number of slots available and their purse before going into the auction by releasing players from the current squad. The teams have made good use of this opportunity and have reduced the strength of the squad which means they will have a chance to fix things by getting in new players before the start of the next season.

Talking about the player release, Royal Challengers Bangalore released the most number of players with 12. Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals released 11 players each, while defending champions Mumbai Indians released 10 players. Delhi Capitals, who was one of the most active franchises in the trade window, released 9 players. Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad let go of 7, 6 and 5 players respectively.

Also see - England vs New Zealand schedule 2019

While the release of most of the players was on expected lines, there were a few surprises. It will be interesting to see whether the decision to release these players pays off or backfires. Here are the 5 players who shouldn't have been allowed to leave.

#5 David Miller (Kings XI Punjab)

David Miller

David Miller, who was once the premier batsman of Kings XI Punjab, finds himself out of the squad for IPL 2020. There are no doubts that Miller's form has been a little cold in the last couple of years but considering his years of experience of playing on Indian pitches, he could have been retained. Miller has accomplished the difficult task of being the finisher to good effect. He has played some stunning match-winning innings for the Kings in his long IPL career. Miller is a live wire on the field which makes him a perfect package for T20 cricket.

#4 Piyush Chawla (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Piyush Chawla

Piyush Chawla would be wondering what he did wrong to be released by his franchise. Chawla has been an integral part of KKR since joining the squad in 2014. He was Gambhir's go-to man in the middle overs and played a crucial role in the team's title victory in 2014. Chawla has been a consistent performer with the ball bowling without giving away too many runs. However, his performance in IPL 2019 was quite underwhelming. The leg-spinner took just 10 wickets in 13 games at an average of 39.90 while giving away runs at an economy of 8.96, owing to which he was released by the franchise.

But one bad season doesn't make a player bad. Chawla has been pretty much KKR's main spinner all these years and letting him go might turn out to be a bad decision.

#3 Chris Morris (Delhi Capitals)

Chris Morris

Chris Morris is an attractive T20 cricketer. With the ball in hand, he bowls fast and aggressively, producing opportunities to pick wickets, while with the bat he can take the game away from the opposition in a couple of overs with his clean hitting. Despite having all these key attributes of being a good T20 cricketer, Morris has struggled to find his feet in the IPL.

Morris had a stellar season for Delhi Daredevils in 2017 after which he was retained by the franchise. After missing most of the games in IPL 2018 due to injury, Morris was back in IPL 2019. Unfortunately, Morris failed terribly with the bat scoring just 32 runs in 9 outings. He fared better with the ball picking up 13 scalps in 9 games but gave away runs at a poor economy of 9.27.

While the numbers are undoubtedly quite disappointing, the South African has time and again proved his worth as a T20 player and Delhi Capitals might have made a mistake by releasing an impact player like him.

#2 Dale Steyn (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

Dale Steyn

So Dale Steyn came into the Royal Challengers Bangalore side as a replacement player, played two games, bowled well, picked up 4 wickets, and missed the remaining season due to injury and gets released for the next season. In a bizarre move, RCB released South Africa speedster, Dale Steyn.

Steyn is unarguably the greatest fast bowler of our times and his IPL record is pretty impressive too. Steyn has 96 wickets to his name in 92 games. But the most staggering part of his IPL record is his stunning economy of 6.76. Steyn has been one of the most dreaded fast bowlers in IPL history.

Unfortunately, the quick bowler hasn't been able to play more matches due to injuries and workload management but now that he has retired from Test cricket and is not a regular in the South African T20 and ODI side, Steyn could have been a useful bowler. RCB certainly missed a trick here.

#1 Chris Lynn (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Chris Lynn

Chris Lynn was first bought by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014. After playing just 4 games in 3 years, Lynn had a sensational season in 2017 where he scored 295 runs in just 7 games at a fabulous average of 49.16 and a mind-boggling strike-rate of 180.98. On the virtue of his good performance, Lynn was retained by KKR for 9.6 crores. Lynn scored over 400 runs in both 2018 and 2019. However, the Australian changed his approach as he played a bit more cautiously causing his strike-rate to drop to the 130s. However, he kept playing crucial innings at the top of the order and provided strong starts to the team.

KKR might have dropped him with the intention of buying him back at a lower price at the auction but it might not be that straightforward as teams will be queuing up to grab Lynn, which might make KKR regret their decision of releasing the 29-year-old.