IPL 2021 Player Retention: Parthiv Patel Takes a Dig at RCB for Releasing Him 'After Being Retired'

Parthiv Patel took a dig at Royal Challengers Bangalore for 'releasing him after being retired' as teams announced the list of retained players ahead of the player auction for the IPL 2021.

Parthiv, who had announced his retirement from all forms of cricket last month, was a part of the RCB franchise since 2018. However, he didn't' play a single match for them in IPL 2020 as the team went with a young opener in Devdutt Padikkal. After announcing his retirement, Parthiv joined Mumbai Indians as their talent scout.

IPL 2021 Players Retention: Full List of Retained & Released Players for all Teams

A cheeky Parthiv said being released after being retired was an 'absolute honour'.

An absolute honour to be released after being retired . ... thank you @RCBTweets

— parthiv patel (@parthiv9) January 20, 2021

In their website, RCB had mentioned Parthiv's omission from the released players list as: "Parthiv Patel, who announced his retirement from all forms of cricket is the other obvious emission from the squad."

Mumbai Indians Released Lasith Malinga as Pacer Wanted to Retire from Franchise Cricket

Other franchises like Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings too had a couple of players being released due to retirement - Lasith Malinga and Shane Watson respectively. The franchises thanked them with posts on social media, something RCB didn't on Wednesday.

However, RCB had paid tribute to Parthiv after he had announced his retirement on December 9.

Right from his debut for 🇮🇳 , to his final IPL season in 2020, @parthiv9 showed us how important it is to have a strong character and work hard. It was a pleasure having you at RCB. Best wishes for the life ahead and thank you for all the memories🙌❤️#PlayBold #ThankYouParthiv pic.twitter.com/2bg9u7OyzF

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) December 9, 2020

After the IPL 2020, which was won by MI, Parthiv had said Rohit Sharma was a better captain than RCB's Virat Kohli, who is yet to win the tournament.

"The talk is about who takes a better decision, who reads the game better, who makes a better decision in a pressure situation which helps a team win – In that regard, Rohit Sharma as a captain is slightly better than Virat Kohli," Parthiv Patel told Star Sports.

Parthiv was among the unfortunate set of wicketkeepers to have played a bulk of their cricket in the MS Dhoni era, which meant he was constantly in and out of the Indian team. However, he was a giant in the domestic circuit, having played 194 first-class matches for 11240 runs at an average of 43.39.

He led Gujarat to their maiden Ranji Trophy title win in 2016-17, scoring 90 and 143 in the final against Mumbai. A year earlier, he had led them to title victory in the Vijay Hazare Trophy with a century in the final against Delhi.

He has also played 139 IPL matches across six teams including Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and RCB, scoring 2848 runs at a strike rate of 120.78. He won the trophy with CSK in 2010 and MI in 2015 and 2017, the year in which he top scored for the franchise.

List of players retained by RCB

Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Josh Philippe, Shahbaz Ahmed and Pavan Deshpande

List of players released by RCB

Aaron Finch, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Shivam Dube, Dale Steyn, Parthiv Patel and Umesh Yadav

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