Kolkata Knight Riders confirm Hales, Cummins, Billings unavailable for IPL 2023

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Tuesday confirmed the departures of England batsmen Alex Hales and Sam Billings, along with Australia skipper Pat Cummins ahead of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

Billings and Cummins earlier had announced that they had decided to skip IPL 2023 because of their national commitments.

"We respect Pat Cummins, Sam Billings, and Alex Hales's decision of skipping next year's IPL due to personal reasons and national team commitments. All the best, guys!" tweeted KKR ahead of IPL 2023 auction.

Hales, who withdrew from last year's IPL due to bubble-fatigue, recently made a memorable comeback for the England side. He, along with Jos Buttler, helped England thrash India by 10 wickets in the semi-final of T20 World Cup 2022. England eventually defeated Pakistan by five wickets in the final to win their second T20 world title.

Australia's Test captain Cummins recently was named the ODI skipper as well of the national side. Cummins reached the decision to miss the IPL 2023 keeping in mind the Ashes and 50-over World Cup next year.

"I've made the difficult decision to miss next years IPL. The international schedule is packed with Tests and ODI's for the next 12 months, so will take some rest ahead of an Ashes series and World Cup. Thanks so much to @KKRiders for their understanding. Such a terrific team of players and staff and I hope I can get back there ASAP," Cummins tweeted.

Earlier this week, KKR landed Shardul Thakur (from Delhi Capitals), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (from Gujarat Titans) and Lockie Ferguson (from Gujarat Titans) before the deadline day of the retention list.

The player auction ahead of IPL 2023 is scheduled to take place in Kochi on Dec. 23.

Last year, Shreyas Iyer-led KKR managed just six victories from their 14 group games and finished seventh in the table out of the 10 teams.

List of players retained by KKR ahead of IPL 2023 auction:

Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh.

List of players released by KKR ahead of IPL 2023 auction:

Pat Cummins, Sam Billings, Aman Khan, Shivam Mavi, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Sharma, Baba Indrajith, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Sheldon Jackson.