Kathmandu, November 15

Nepali leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane has been retained by the Delhi Daredevils for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) while skipper Gautam Gambhir was released.

The right-handed leg spinner Lamichhane is the first Nepali cricketer to get a contract and play in the lucrative IPL Twenty20 tournament.

The IPL contract, which came at the base amount of Rs 3.2 million in the auction for the previous season, was a breakthrough in Lamichhane’s glittering career. After the IPL, Lamichhane has signed contracts with various teams including in Australia’s Big Bash League.

As the 2019 IPL auction is due to take place next month teams have finalised the list of retained and released players. Meanwhile, Daredevils acquired Shikhar Dhawan’s services from the Sunrisers Hyderabad, after releasing Gambhir who returned to the home franchise on the back of two titles with the Kolkata Knight Riders. But the things didn’t go well for him and he even had to step down from the captaincy after the first few matches.

The Delhi franchise team also retained Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Manjot Kalra, Colin Munro, Chris Morris, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Harshal Patel, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult and Avesh Khan.

On other hand, Jason Roy, Gurkeerat Mann, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Shami, Dan Christian, Sayan Ghosh, Liam Plunkett, Junior Dala and Naman Ojha all were released by the Delhi based team.