Kings XI Punjab have retained their core team ahead of next year's VIVO Indian Premier League with nine players set to continue with the outfit.

The Karnataka duo of Lokesh Rahul, who was KXIP's leading run scorer in this year's edition of the IPL, and Karun Nair is set to continue.

Ravichandran Ashwin has been retained too.

From the overseas lot, wily spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Season 11 Purple Cap-holder Andrew Tye, explosive opener Chris Gayle and David Miller will don the KXIP threads again. Mayank Agarwal and Ankit Rajpoot will be the uncapped players that will be seen in Season 12 as well.

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.

RETAINED: Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair, David Miller and Ravichandran Ashwin

RELEASED: Aaron Finch, Axar Patel, Mohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Barinder Sran, Ben Dwarshuis, Manoj Tiwary, Akshdeep Nath, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar and Manzoor Dar

TRADED: Marcus Stoinis for Mandeep Singh