IPL 2020: The complete list of players Royal Challengers Bangalore released and retained

Royal Challengers Bangalore is the team which goes into the December auction with the maximum number of slots available: 12 domestic and six foreign players. It has retained only the core group, which includes skipper Virat Kohli, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, England's Moeen Ali, and Mr 360 AB de Villiers. That, in short, tells us the story of the franchise's run in the league, thus far.

Another winless run in the league, earlier, prompted the side to rope in Mike Hesson from Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) as the director of operations at the franchise while Simon Katich was named the head coach.

And now, RCB has also let go of big names like Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin de Grandhomme and Tim Southee.

READ: IPL 2020: Why some players were released and others retained ahead of auction

Although pacer Mohammed Siraj put up a dismal show last season, the management has decided to give him another chance. Parthiv Patel will be donning the gloves for the Red and Gold squad once more, while Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini is expected to headline the pace attack.

RCB chairman Sanjeev Churiwala sounded optimistic ahead of the start of the 2020 season of the league. He said, "For the 13th season of IPL, we want a balanced core team. The process of retention and release of players is always a difficult decision and yet a pivotal part of the team selection.

"While we acknowledge the contribution of all our players in the previous sessions, in preparation to the upcoming season, we have further fine-tuned the squad and have decided to release players in order to get closer to our current cricket strategy. So, here’s hoping for a good start to the next season of IPL."

RCB goes into the auctions with a purse of Rs 27.90 crores.

READ: IPL 2020: The complete list of players traded ahead of auction