Key members of Afghanistan’s National Cricket Team - Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Zadran – will play in the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) as SunRisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab announced on Thursday that they have decided to retain these Afghan players for the next season.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, the winner of the 2016 IPL, announced the list of players they have retained and released ahead of the 2019 season of the cash-rich league. 

Afghanistan’s cricket sensation and all-rounder Mohammad Nabi are part of the 17 players retained by the team, while the team has released nine players including the trade-off of Shikhar Dhawan to Delhi Daredevils. 

Meanwhile, Wriddhiman Saha is a big name released by the franchise, the SRH think tank also decided to let go of some famous overseas players in Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite and Chris Jordan.

In the meantime, Kings XI Punjab have retained their core team ahead of next year’s league with nine players set to continue with the outfit.
Afghanistan’s wily spinner Mujeeb Zadran and the Karnataka duo of Lokesh Rahul, who was KXIP’s leading run scorer in this year’s edition of the IPL, and Karun Nair are set to continue. Ravichandran Ashwin has been retained too.

The team would like to thank the players who have been released for their contributions and wishes them the very best for the future.

This leaves KXIP with at least eight more spots to complete the squad, which will be addressed in the player auction ahead of the next season.

The decisions come after the the three Afghan players showed tremendous performance in their teams in this year's IPL tournament.