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England’s Jos Buttler who was not retained by the Rajasthan Royals ahead of the Indian Premier League auctions, thanked the franchise for the 7 seasons he spent with them.
“If it turns out that this is the end, thank you @rajasthanroyals and everyone involved with the franchise for 7 incredible seasons together. 2018 kickstarted the best years of my cricketing career and many of my most cherished memories have come in a Pink shirt over the last 6 years. Thank you for welcoming me and my family with open arms. Could write so much more but let’s leave it there,” Buttler wrote on his Instagram handle.
Buttler has played for the Royals since IPL 2018 and has amassed 3055 runs, with his highest run-scoring season coming in 2022 where he put on 863 runs.
The Royals chose to retain six players in the IPL retention window on October 31. The former champion side, who now have Rahul Dravid at the helm, chose to retain Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer and Sandeep Sharma.
Sandeep Sharma has been retained under the revived “uncapped” player rule.
The team has let spin wizards Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin besides Buttler go into the auction pool for the IPL 2025 mega auction.
Coach Dravid had revealed the reason behind their retention picks, stressing on the fact that a team needs a strong core to compete.
“We have a lot of talented players who have performed well. We trust our talent and we also want to maintain the core and want to build the team around it. We have seen that if you maintain the core, it’s easier to build a team and there’s always a loyalty factor for a franchise that you can’t ignore,” Dravid said.
