Under Pietersen’s captaincy, the Daredevils finished at the bottom of the points table in this year’s IPL

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

The Delhi Daredevils have released their captain Kevin Pietersen following his his poor performance during this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) season.

However, Pietersen was just one of numerous high-profile players released by the Daredevils. Some of the other notable players cut from the franchise’s roster are New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor, India wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik and opener Murali Vijay.

“We are looking at rebuilding our squad,” Daredevils chief executive Hemant Dua said. “We have got a squad (after the cuts) that we believe forms the core,” Dua said. “The franchise has decided to release certain players because we believe that the money will give us a significant purse that will help us buy new players to strengthen the squad for the upcoming season.”

When asked why the Daredevils released Pietersen, Dua noted that it would give the franchise extra money to spend during the 2015 IPL auction.

Elaborating on Dua’s point, a Daredevils official said: “He has not played any cricket really this year. He was bought for Rs 9 crore. That frees up a lot of money.”

Delhi Daredevils released: Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay, Jaydev Unadkat, Ross Taylor, Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Rahul Sharma, Wayne Parnell, James Neesham, Siddarth Kaul, Rahul Shukla, HS Sharath, Milind Kumar

Delhi Daredevils retained: JP Duminy, Mohammed Shami, Quinton de Kock, Manoj Tiwary, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Imran Tahir, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Shahbaz Nadeem, Saurabh Tiwary