Delhi Daredevils axe Kevin Pietersen from Indian Premier League squad

Pietersen captained the franchise during the previous season, but showed disappointing form with the bat and could not prevent them finishing bottom of the table.

The former England man is currently in Australia playing for Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash, but will go into the IPL auction without a contract.

With the 2015 edition set to get under way in April, Delhi announced that Pietersen, along with the likes of Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay, had been released in order to free up funds.

"We have submitted our list of releases to the IPL governing council and I can confirm that we have released Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay among the marquee players," chief executive Hemant Dua is widely quoted as saying.

"We have only retained 11 players from the last season of IPL.

"We are looking at rebuilding our squad. He [Pietersen] has not played any cricket really this year. He was bought for £880,000. That frees up a lot of money.

"Karthik was an expensive buy. It was the decision of the Daredevils management.

"The rationale behind releasing some of the marquee players is going into the auction with a bigger purse and also look from the perspective of being cost effective."