On November 26, 2023, all ten IPL franchises announced the list of cricketers they retained and released ahead of the IPL 2024 auction, to be held on December 19.

In all, Royal Challengers Bangalore released 11 cricketers. Among them was Josh Hazlewood, who had won the ODI World Cup with Australia a week before the announcement.

With 11 wickets and an economy rate of 8.37, Hazlewood had played a significant role in Chennai Super Kings’ trophy win in 2021. However, when Chennai released him ahead of the 2022 mega auction, the Bangalore franchise acquired him for INR 7.75 crore.

Across the next two seasons, Hazlewood claimed 23 wickets at 19.69, while going at 8.16 an over, though he played only three matches in 2023 after missing the first half with an Achilles heel injury.

At the World Cup, albeit in another format, his 16 wickets – the joint-most among Australia’s fast bowlers – came at 28.06 apiece, while he maintained an economy of 4.81. Once regarded as a Test specialist, Hazlewood has established a reputation as a cross-format bowler to be feared.

Thus, it came as a surprise when Bangalore announced the release of an in-form fast bowler.

Soon after they announced the names of the released cricketers, Royal Challengers Bangalore put up a video on X (formerly Twitter), where head coach Andy Flower and director of cricket Mo Bobat explained the decisions.

“Josh Hazlewood…very pleasingly, has a baby on the way, due in March”, explained Flower, shortly after getting off the phone with Hazlewood. “So Josh won’t be with us, certainly not for the first half of the season.”

Royal Challenger Bangalore’s other releases were Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, David Willey, Wayne Parnell, Sonu Yadav, Avinash Singh, Siddharth Kaul, and Kedar Jadhav. They had also traded Shahbaz Ahmed to Sunrisers Hyderabad in return of Mayank Dagar.

The transfer window will remain open until December 12.