Jofra Archer, Harry Brook and Adil Rashid have joined the growing number of England players who will not take part in next year’s Indian Premier League.

Archer has been released by Mumbai Indians, along with his replacement Chris Jordan, while Brook and Rashid have been released by Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Archer took just two wickets in five matches for Mumbai earlier this year before being sidelined.

The 28-year-old returned to India to continue his rehabilitation from an elbow injury alongside England’s World Cup squad, but was not considered to replace Reece Topley after his fellow fast bowler suffered a broken finger.

England Test captain Ben Stokes announced on Thursday he would not be available for the IPL.

Stokes was purchased by Chennai Super Kings for £1.65million last December, but struggled with his fitness and played only twice for his new franchise in the 2023 tournament.

Stokes is due for surgery on a longstanding knee injury to ensure he is fit for England’s five-match Test series with India which begins in January.

Joe Root followed the lead of Stokes two days later, confirming he would not join up with a Rajasthan Royals squad which contains England white-ball captain Jos Buttler next year.

Joe Root has followed the lead of England Test captain Ben Stokes by skipping next year’s Indian Premier League.

It was confirmed on Wednesday that Stokes would not appear for Chennai Super Kings in the 2024 edition of the IPL, with the 32-year-old citing the need to manage his fitness and workload.

Root has now joined his red-ball skipper in sitting out the Twenty20 tournament, which will run from March until the end of May.

Rajasthan Royals secured the services of Root at the 2023 mini-auction and he featured three times for the franchise earlier this year, but will not join up with the group that contains England white-ball captain Jos Buttler next year.

Royals director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara said: “During our retention conversations, Joe informed us of his decision to not take part in IPL 2024.

“Even in a short span of time, Joe was able to create such a positive impact on the franchise and the players around him.

“His energy around the group and the experience he brought to the Royals will be missed. We respect his decision totally and wish him success in everything he does.”

Root is set for a key role in England’s five-match Test series away to India, which starts on January 25.

West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd has been added to the Mumbai Indians roster for the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after they finalised a trade deal with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Shepherd, who only played four IPL matches, representing LSG and Sunrisers Hyderabad, was traded to five-time champions Mumbai Indians for his existing fee of US$60 000, and he will be hoping for more playing time to not only justify the move, but more importantly, live up to his tidy reputation.

The 28-year-old is regarded for his pace bowling skills, boasting a repertoire of variations that will enable his captain to call upon him in different match situations. He can also contribute handsomely to the team's batting innings once he gets going.

Shepherd was a part of the Guyana Amazon Warriors side that won the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) tournament for the first time, in September, and he has become an integral member of the West Indies Twenty20 International set-up.

He runs tally currently stands at 301 in 31 matches at an average of 37.62, while his strike rate is 153.57. With the ball, Shepherd has taken 31 wickets at an average of 29.70.

Mumbai Indians finished fourth in this year’s IPL tournament with eight wins in 14 matches. They defeated LSG in the first elimination final but lost to Gujarat Titans in the second elimination final.

Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have confirmed that the upcoming IPL auction will take place in Dubai. It will be the first time that the auction is being hosted outside of the country.

Last year, the auction was scheduled to be hosted in Istanbul, Turkey, before a late move to be hosted in the Indian city of Kochi.

Organisers have also extended the deadline for the list of released players from November 15 to November 26.

Daniel Vettori has replaced Brian Lara as the head coach of IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Vettori, a former left-arm spinner for New Zealand, was previously head coach at Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2014-2018 and is currently working as the assistant coach with the Australia men's team.

The latest update means Sunrisers will have a fourth head coach in six seasons, with Tom Moody (2019 and 2022), Trevor Bayliss (2020 and 2021), and Lara (2023) preceding Vettori.

Lara had replaced Moody ahead of the 2023 IPL season, but the side finished last (tenth) with four wins and ten losses.

At the moment, Vettori is head coach of the Birmingham Phoenix men's team at the Hundred, and since May 2022, has been with the Australia men's national side. His coaching resume also includes stints with Barbados Royals in the CPL, with Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League and with Middlesex in the Vitality Blast, all as head coach, and a spell as spin-bowling consultant with the Bangladesh men's national team.

In his previous run as a head coach in the IPL, Vettori helped RCB get into the playoffs in 2015 and the final in 2016 where, incidentally, they lost to Sunrisers.

This is now the third high-profile coaching appointment ahead of the 2024 IPL season, with Justin Langer taking over from Andy Flower at Lucknow Super Giants and Flower later joining RCB in the same role.

Sunrisers have had a lean time of it in the IPL in recent years, perhaps explaining the revolving door for the coaches. Since IPL 2021, they have won only 13 games while losing 29.

From 2016 (when they were champions) to 2020, Sunrisers reached the playoffs every season, but they have failed to replicate that success since. They will now hope to end a three-season streak of finishing outside the top four with the combination of Vettori and captain Aiden Markram at the helm.

Nicholas Pooran once again played a starring role to help the Lucknow Super Giants beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by one run at Eden Gardens on Saturday and seal a playoff spot.

After KKR won the toss and elected to field first, LSG, propelled by an aggressive 58 from Pooran, posted 176-8 off their 20 overs.

Pooran’s knock came off just 30 balls and included four fours and five sixes. He was well supported by Quinton De Kock (28) and Prerak Mankad (27).

Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur and Vaibhav Arora all took two wickets, each, for the Knight Riders.

Then, despite a fighting 67* from Rinku Singh and 45 from Jason Roy, KKR finished their reply 175-7 off 20 overs, falling agonizingly short of the win.

Ravi Bishnoi led the way with the ball for Lucknow with 2-13 from his four overs while Yash Thakur also took a pair of wickets.

Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal narrowly missed out on his second hundred of the 2023 Indian Premier League season, making 98* to help the Rajasthan Royals secure a dominant nine-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on Thursday.

The Royals first restricted the Knight Riders to 149-8 off their 20 overs after winning the toss and choosing to field.

KKR’s effort was led by a 47-ball 57 from Venkatesh Iyer that included a pair of fours and four sixes.

Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal led the way with the ball once again for the Royals, taking 4-25 from his four overs.

Chahal also made history with the wicket of KKR captain Nitish Rana, becoming the leading wicket-taker in IPL history with his 184^th scalp, passing West Indian great Dwayne Bravo.

New Zealand quick Trent boult took 2-15 in three overs in support of Chahal.

The Royals were then dominant in their reply, needing only 13.1 overs to reach 151-1.

Jaiswal, who made the fastest fifty in IPL history when he brought up the milestone off just 13 deliveries, finished 98* off 47 balls. He hit 12 fours and five sixes.

Royals captain Sanju Samson ended unbeaten on 48.

Rajasthan are now third in the table with 12 points from as many games played.

A well composed fifty from captain Nitish Rana and a crucial 42 from Andre Russell helped the Kolkata Knight Riders win an exciting last-ball thriller over the Punjab Kings in their Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture at Eden Gardens on Monday.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the Kings posted 179-7 off their 20 overs thanks to a top-score of 57 off 47 balls from captain Shikhar Dhawan.

Spinner Varun Chakravarthy led the way with 3-26 from his four overs while pacer Harshit Rana took 2-33 from three overs for the Knight Riders.

In reply, captain Nitish Rana made a 38 ball 51 while Andre Russell contributed 42 and Jason Roy 38 as the Knight Riders successfully reached 182-5 off their 20 overs.

Russell’s knock came off just 23 balls and included a 20-run penultimate over leaving the Knight Riders needing six to win off the last over.

The Jamaican fell off the penultimate ball of the match with KKR needing two to win before Rinku Singh, who finished 21* off 10 balls, hit the final ball bowled by Arshdeep Singh for four to seal the win.

Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar took 2-23 off his four overs for Punjab.

Former South Africa quick and current Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) bowling coach Dale Steyn shared an interesting story on how the Proteas helped preserve West Indies legend Brian Lara's record for the highest individual score in Tests.

Notably, Lara recently celebrated the 19th anniversary of the day he scored the historic knock (400*) against England in Antigua in 2004.

Speaking on the franchise’s YouTube channel, Steyn stated that Lara, head coach of SRH, got nostalgic about his record innings.

He further revealed the chain of events on how Sri Lankan great Mahela Jayawardene was on the verge of breaking the historic record in a match between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Colombo in July 2006.

"I literally just looked at him (Brian Lara) and said, 'You're welcome. You still have your record due to South Africa’. Mahela (Jayawardene) and (Kumar) Sangakkara are batting together, Sangakkara is on strike. We never sniffed a wicket in that entire time,” Steyn said.

“At Tea on day three, we'd been fielding for two and a half days in the sun. Ashwell (Prince, who was captain on the tour) and the South Africans all get together and our team talk was not about how we're gonna draw or win this game. Mahela was on 370 somewhere and we just said, 'We need to do anything possible to make sure he didn't break Brian Lara’s record,” he added.

As the Sri Lankan closed in on the record, South Africa somehow managed to dismiss him just 26 runs short. 

"We come out of tea. Andre Nel is the bowler. And I’ve been fielding at mid-off for most of this game. I’d seen everything happen in this game at mid-off. I think he had run every milestone to me. I think he just blocked the ball and ran to me at this point,” shared Steyn.

“Nel ran in, he dragged one short, it was halfway down the pitch. I basically looked at the square leg because the bulk of the time that was where the ball was going. And for some crazy weird reason this ball didn’t get higher than ankle height and it castled Mahela’s stumps and we got him out for 374", he concluded.

While Lara’s 400* is still intact, Jayawardene’s 374 remains the fourth-highest individual score in Test history.

Meanwhile, Lara, who has scores of 400* and 375, features in the top-four list twice, whereas Matthew Hayden's 380-run knock against Zimbabwe in 2003 is the second-highest individual score in Test history.

Captain Faf Du Plessis and fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood starred for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in an 18-run win over the Lucknow Super Giants in their Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture in Lucknow on Monday.

Du Plessis made a top-score of 44 while Virat Kohli made 31 as RCB struggled to 126-9 off their 20 overs after winning the toss and batting first.

Afghan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq led the way with the ball for the hosts with 3-30 from his four overs while leg-spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Amit Mishra took a pair of wickets, each.

The Lucknow chase was made even more difficult when captain KL Rahul was forced off the field with a thigh injury.

In the end, the Super Giants were bowled out for a lowly 108 in 19.5 overs.

Hazlewood made his return to the RCB side with 2-15 from his three overs while Karn Sharma finished with 2-20 from four overs.

RCB are now fifth in the table with 10 points from nine games.

Yashasvi Jaiswal's 124 counted for little as his Rajasthan Royals fell to a six-wicket defeat against the Mumbai Indians thanks to Tim David's stunning cameo at Wankhede on Sunday.

Jaiswal lit up the IPL's 1,000th match with a superb innings, but the five-time champions chased down the 213 target with three balls to spare as David whacked three straight sixes to seal the victory.

The Royals won the toss and elected to bat first, getting off to a strong start as Jaiswal and Jos Buttler combined to get Rajasthan to 72 runs before Buttler was caught off Piyush Chawla's bowling.

The wickets began to tumble around Jaiswal, with no other batsman scoring higher than Buttler's 18, yet he powered his way to a century off just 53 balls to help the Royals to a strong total of 212/7.

The run chase started poorly as captain Rohit Sharma could not mark breaking the Indians' all-time IPL appearance record with a suitably memorable innings, dismissed for just three in the second over of his 190th match for Mumbai.

But Suryakumar Yadav gave the Indians a chance of pulling off the win with his 55 off 29 balls, and though he fell in the 16th, David finished the job with an epic final over, nailing three consecutive maximums to clinch a first win in three for Mumbai.

Jaiswal century in vain

Jaiswal's brilliant 124 is the highest score in this season's IPL and is the joint-most ever recorded by a Rajasthan batsman (also Buttler v Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2021).

The 21-year-old smashed eight sixes and 16 fours on his way to the highest IPL score by an uncapped Indian batter, yet he still ended up on the losing side.

Mumbai win despite Rohit's birthday struggles

Danger man Rohit turned 36 the day of the game, also moving above Kieron Pollard on the Indians' IPL appearance list, with only Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni playing more games for a single team.

He had his team-mates to thank for being able to mark his special day with a win, though, as Mumbai overcame their captain's low score with Cameron Green, Suryakumar and David all getting scores of 40+, the latter making 45 off just 14 deliveries to secure the victory.

Sikandar Raza scored the winning runs off the final ball as Punjab Kings beat Chennai Super Kings by four wickets in a thrilling Indian Premier League contest.

Devon Conway's highest IPL score of 92 off 52 balls took CSK up to 200-4 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, but the in-form batter's brilliant knock was in vain.

Prabhsimran Singh (42 off 24), Liam Livingstone (40 from 24) and Sam Curran (29 off 20) kept Punjab in the hunt to pull off the highest successful run chase against Chennai in their own backyard.

Needing 12 to win off the final over from Matheesha Pathirana, Raza hoisted the final delivery towards the square-leg boundary and scampered through for the three runs that were required for victory.

Conway put on 86 for the first wicket with Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was stumped for 37, giving Raza the charge in the 10th over.

Shivam Dube made a brisk 28 before he was sent on his way by Arshdeep Singh and Moeen Ali fell cheaply, but Punjab were unable to see the back of Conway.

He struck a six and found the rope 16 times in another masterful knock, falling just short of a century and watching on at the other end as MS Dhoni struck Sam Curran for back-to-back sixes to end the innings in style.

Prabhsimran and Shikhar Dhawan got the run chase off to a flying start, putting on 50 before the captain became the first of Tushar Deshpande's (3-49) victims.

Ravindra Jadeja (2-32) made it advantage CSK by removing Prabhsimran and Atharva Taid, but England duo Livingstone and Curran kept the game in the balance.

They put on 57 before Livingstone was caught in the deep off the bowling of Deshpande and Pathirana struck another blow by cleaning Curran up.

Jitesh Sharma fell for 21 in the penultimate over, but Raza ensured Punjab moved just behind CSK in fifth place with their fifth win of the season.  

Conway shows the way for CSK

New Zealand opener Conway has been a revelation for CSK at the top of the order, this being his fifth half-century in six knocks.

The left-hander needed just 31 balls to reach his latest fifty, taking his tally of runs for the tournament to 414. 

Only Faf du Plessis (422) has more runs in the 2023 IPL than Conway, who averages 59.14 at a strike rate of 144.25.

Livingstone looking ominous

Punjab had to start the tournament without Livingstone as he recovered from injury, but he certainly appears to have his eye in again.

The all-rounder gave a demonstration of his power and timing, clearing the rope four times in a crucial knock to keep the target within reach.

Vijay Shankar's half-century helped the Gujarat Titans to a comfortable seven-wicket triumph over the Kolkata Knights Riders at Eden Gardens on Saturday.

Rinku Singh famously smashed five sixes in the last over to earn Kolkata victory the last time these sides met, but this time Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar took the acclaim as Gujarat cruised to their 180 target for a third straight win.

Gujarat won the toss and put Kolkata in to bat first, and after a 45-minute rain delay, Rahmanullah Gurbaz powered his way to 81 off just 39 deliveries to take the Knights Riders to 135 off 15.2 overs before he was caught at deep midwicket by Rashid Khan off Noor Ahmad's bowling.

Andre Russell (34 from 19) and Rinku (19 off 20) also chipped in with late cameos as Kolkata finished on 179/7, while Mohammed Shami (3-33) impressed with the ball for the Titans.

Gujarat's chase got off to a strong start thanks to Gill as he combined with Wriddhiman Saha (10 off 10) and captain Hardik Pandya (26 from 20) to take the Titans on the way to victory.

Gill (49) was eventually dismissed on the verge of his half-century when he skied Sunil Narine's delivery to Russell, but Shankar and David Miller (32 from 18) would finish the job with two overs remaining.

Kolkata's powerplay woes continue

The Knights Riders are the only team to concede at least 50 runs in all nine of their matches so far this season, an unwanted run that is the longest in IPL history.

Kolkata's batsmen are averaging a boundary every 4.8 balls, the most often of all IPL teams, but their bowlers again failed to live up to expectations as they fell to a fifth defeat in six matches.

Shankar haunts Kolkata again

Shankar's 51 off 24 balls made him the second non-opener to score two half-centuries against the Knight Riders in an IPL season after Suresh Raina in 2017.

The batsman has hit 10 sixes against Kolkata across both games, the joint third-highest in one season against the Knights Riders.

Marcus Stoinis led the way as Lucknow Super Giants posted the highest team score for a decade in the IPL in a resounding victory over Punjab Kings.

Lucknow amassed 257-5 – a total that has been bettered only once in the competition, when Royal Challengers Bangalore totted up 263-5 against Pune Warriors on April 23, 2013, thanks to a record 175no from Chris Gayle that contained 17 sixes.

Ten years and five days on from that mighty effort from RCB and Gayle, Lucknow made sure their own impressive efforts did not go to waste as they bowled out Punjab for 201 to seal a 56-run win.

Stoinis clattered five sixes in his 72 from 40 balls, with Kyle Mayers (54), Ayush Badoni (43) and Nicholas Pooran (45) also scoring at a impressively rapid lick.

It was then Stoinis the bowler who removed Punjab captain Shikhar Dhawan in the first over of the reply, having him caught just inside the ropes.

The home side had no option but to go flat out for fast runs, but they lost Dhawan's fellow opener Prabhsimran Singh in the fourth over too.

Stoinis hurt his left index finger while fielding his own bowling and was taken out of the attack, saying after the match ended: "It's all right; it's been better. It is what it is and we'll get it scanned later."

Atharva Taide and Sikandar Raza looked to up the tempo of the Punjab reply, but the required run rate was up to around 17 an over by the midway point of the innings, the contest already all but over.

Raza fell for 36 from 22 balls, and Taide went for 66 from 36 when a top edge allowed Ravi Bishnoi to take an awkward return catch.

Yash Thakur removed Raza and then snatched three lower-order wickets as the batting became haphazard, finishing with figures of 4-37, while Naveen-ul-Haq weighed in with 3-30.

Bittersweet day for super Stoinis

His form has been patchy in this IPL campaign, but this game saw Stoinis make his mark, so it was cruel he should also suffer an injury blow. In seven previous innings this season, he had passed 21 runs only once, making 65 against RCB, and once he got going again the Punjab crowd witnessed another fine performance.

Stoinis appeared for the post-match presentation with his sore fingered bandaged, but he spoke with satisfaction about his batting effort, saying Lucknow had been determined to "cash in and take advantage of this beautiful batting wicket, so it was good fun".

Runs galore

This game's total of 458 runs made it the match with the third-highest combined tally in IPL history. It has been beaten only by the 469 runs produced by Chennai Super Kings versus Rajasthan Royals in April 2019, and the 459 between Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders in May 2018.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and Adam Zampa led Rajasthan Royals to the top of the Indian Premier League with a sensational knock in a 32-run win over Chennai Super Kings.

Jaiswal plundered 77 from 43 deliveries to propel the Royals to 202-5 from their 20 overs on Thursday.

The Royals opener finally succumbed to Tushar Deshpande in the 14th over, though the damage had been done, with Rajasthan having reached 132 at that stage.

Jos Buttler scored 27 as he helped mount an opening-wicket partnership of 86 with Jaiswal, who also saw Sanju Samson come and go.

Dhruv Jurel added 34 from 15 balls and Devdutt Padikkal tallied up an unbeaten 27 from 13 to nudge the Royals over the 200 mark.

Despite Ruturaj Gaikwad's 47, the Super Kings lacked the pace needed in the chase, and his stand was ended by the brilliant Zampa in the 10th over, who took 3-22.

Shivam Dube's 52 handed Chennai hope, yet with Zampa sending Moeen Ali packing, the Super Kings were battling against the odds.

In the end they just did not have enough, Dube's dismissal in the final over capping off a fine win for the Royals.

IPL first for the Royals

No team had surpassed the 200 milestone in an IPL match played in Jaipur until now, with the Royals holding that unique record.

They are onto 10 points and sit top of the pile.

Jaiswal the star of the show

While Zampa impressed with the ball, it was Jaiswal's knock that really put the Royals in command.

The opener struck 12 boundaries, including four sixes, with his 77 coming at a strike rate of 179.06.

A quickfire 56 from Jason Roy helped Kolkata Knight Riders to a 21-run victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

RCB looked like they might be able to chase down their target of 201 after Virat Kohli (54) threatened to outdo Roy, but once wickets started to fall the hosts ran out of steam quickly.

Roy brought up his 50 from just 22 balls, while Narayan Jagadeesan (27) played a supporting role, but the latter became the first wicket to fall as he tried to hit Vijaykumar Vyshak for six, instead finding David Willey for a simple catch on the boundary.

Vyshak (2-41) then clattered the leg stump of Roy in the same over to give RCB another boost as they looked to get back in to the game.

Captain Nitish Rana (48 from 21 balls) was dropped twice and made RCB pay as he blitzed some boundaries, before finally being caught well by Vyshak off the bowling of Wanindu Hasaranga (2-24).

Venkatesh Iyer (31) was also gone just two balls later after hitting one straight up in the air for Glenn Maxwell to take, while Mohammed Siraj bowled Andre Russell for just one in the penultimate over.

Rinku Singh (18 not out) and David Wiese (12no) added some welcome late boundaries to the end of the innings and set a target just beyond 200, but the reply started well for RCB.

Kohli and Faf Du Plessis (17) hit 30 from the first two overs, though the South African was out in the third as he hit Suyash Sharma to Rinku at long-on.

Suyash (2-30) had another soon after when he trapped Shahbaz Ahmed (2) lbw, and Maxwell (5) was not far behind as he hit a soft shot off Varun Chakravarthy straight to Wiese.

Mahipal Lomror was nicely dovetailing with Kohli as he knocked 34 from 18 balls before finding Russell's safe hands on the boundary as he tried to slog Chakravarthy (3-27).

Hope seemed to be over for the hosts when Kohli hit Russell to deep mid-wicket, only for Venkatesh to take the catch, while Suyash Prabhudessai (10) was run out and Hasaranga added just five before departing.

Once Dinesh Karthik has fallen to Chakravarthy for 22, the writing was on the wall as the Knight Riders clinched just their third win of the season.

Roy wracks up runs

England batter Roy struck 56 to bring up his fourth 50+ score in the IPL; and has now scored 160 runs so far in this, his fourth season, his highest of any prior IPL campaign.

Roy hit four fours and five sixes on Wednesday, with no other batter on either team hitting as many maximums.

Kohli notches another 50

The RCB captain was not quite as explosive as Roy, taking 37 balls to make his 54 and not hitting any sixes (six fours), but Kohli still set the table for what could have been a decent stab at reaching 201 for his team, though it fizzled out fairly rapidly.

This was his fifth 50+ score of the season, the joint-most of any batter (with team-mate Du Plessis), while it was his 54th 50+ score in the competition's history, second to only David Warner (63).