IPL Retention Day Highlights: Stage Set For Grandest Auction In Recent Times With Pant, Iyer, Rahul, Arshdeep In Fray

Good morning everyone! Welcome to the live coverage of IPL Retention Day. Things are about to get spicier as reports will continue to pour in ahead of the official release of the retained names which is at 5pm IST. We will be with you all through the day.

IPL 2025 Retention Rules

The Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council has announced new guidelines for the 2025-27 cycle wherein each IPL franchise can retain up to six players max. Franchises can select a combination of direct retentions or can opt for Right to Match (RTM) card. This is the first time the IPL governing council has opted for RTM option since the 2018 Mega Auction.

Well, reports have been flying like no tomorrow. However, today’s the day things get real. Will Lucknow Super Giants retain KL Rahul? Shreyas Iyer is also said to be leaving the Kolkata Knight Riders. And could Delhi Capitals afford to leave Rishabh Pant, if at all they are thinking about it? 

As things stand, the Chennai Super Kings are set to retain Ruturaj Gaikwad, Matheesha Pathirana, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, and MS Dhoni, who will fall in the uncapped category as his last India appearance was back in the 2019 ODI World Cup. The franchise could enter the auction with one RTM and might pull it out for one of their New Zealand openers in Devon Conway or Rachin Ravindra. 

Well, with KL Rahul reported to go into the auction pool, the Lucknow Super Giants seem to have reached an agreement with Nicholas Pooran for a whopping 20 crore retention. And if at all the rumour turns out to be true, the left-handed showstopper could become one of the highest paid retained players in the history of the league.

Will Royal Challengers Bengaluru leave out Mohammed Siraj? The franchise might be very much interested in retaining Yash Dayal for four crore as the left-arm seamer showcased consistency last season. RCB's other two retentions could be Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar.

Rajasthan Royals, with Rahul Dravid as their new head coach, could potentially retain Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Yuzvendra Chahal and Sandeep Sharma. However, they could come back and pull the RTM card on Jos Buttler.

Some massive news coming in on the morning of the deadline day that Chennai Super Kings are very much interested in Rishabh Pant. With the 27-year-old reported to be released by the Delhi Capitals according to reports, the Chennai-based franchise might be looking for a long-term MS Dhoni replacement.

The Sunrisers Hyderabad are set to retain South Africa's Heinrich Klaasen, skipper Pat Cummins, openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head as well as emerging all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy. They might eye to buy-back Thangarasu Natarajan in the auction.

Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill has decided to take a pay cut and will be the second player to be retained by the franchise with Rashid Khan set to be the first choice retention. GT could also retain Sai Sudharsan, as well as two from the uncapped bracket - Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia. 

For the first time in the history of the Indian Premier League, a match fee has been introduced where each playing member, including the Impact Player, will receive an additional Rs 7.5 lakh per match, on top of the player’s contracted price. 

According to several reports, Virat Kohli is all set to return as the Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper for the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League. It is understood that the 35-year-old has already had discussions with the franchise and wants to take up the leadership void. 

"Rishabh Pant is going to get a lot of money. The amount could go to ₹25 crore or even 30. The same is true for KL Rahul. Again a wicketkeeper-batter and scores 500-600 runs every year. Some people will cry over his strike rate. I saw a meme somewhere that he is more than 30 years old, married, and everyone is saying he is finished, so CSK might take him as such players go there," said Chopra on his YouTube channel.

With the time ticking towards the deadline, do check out the five key questions with respect to the IPL retention day. Here

Here's the retention price breakdown of SRH ahead of the IPL mega auction.

Heinrich Klaasen (SA): Rs 23 crore
Pat Cummins (AUS): Rs 18 crore
Abhishek Sharma (IND): Rs 14 crore
Travis Head (AUS): Rs 14 crore
Nitish Kumar Reddy (IND): Rs 6 crore

According to reports, dashing keeper-batter Rishabh Pant has left Delhi Capitals and will be the hottest player in the IPL auction pool after the GMR-run franchise decided to release the India international.

The four retained players of DC are Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs.

The record for the most expensive retention in Indian Premier League history belongs to Virat Kohli, who was retained by Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2017 for an astounding INR 17 crore. This record is expected to be shattered during the IPL 2025 mega auction, as each team will have an additional budget of INR 10 crore to work with.

This increase in purse size is likely to lead to even higher retention fees for star players

We are just about 60 minutes away from the all-important IPL Retention deadline. We have had several rumours float around for the last few days, but this is when things get real.

- Rishabh Pant to leave Delhi Capitals

- KL Rahul to Royal Challengers Bengaluru

- Shreyas Iyer to join hands with DC

- Chennai Super Kings to break the bank for Pant

Well, well, well. With 20 minutes to go, we have fresh reports. Andre Russell is expected to be retained by Kolkata Knight Riders. After all the talk he might move away, here we are.

The wait is about to be over. Franchises have submitted their lists and soon everything that we were reading as reports will either turn out to be false or get an official stamp over it.

The official retentions are out now and we will soon have all the names of the players retained by sides and the money that they will be given.

Mumbai Indians have retained all their four superstar Indian players alongside youngster Tilak Varma. No uncapped player in their retention list. So they now have one RTM that they can utilise on an uncapped player in the auction.

• Jasprit Bumrah 18cr

• Suryakumar Yadav 16.35cr

• Hardik Pandya 16.35cr

• Rohit Sharma 16.3cr

• Tilak Varma 8cr

So, MS Dhoni has been retained as just Rs 4cr. Overall, CSK have locked five players. Four capped and MS Dhoni as uncapped.

CSK retentions

• Ruturaj Gaikwad 18cr

• Ravindra Jadeja 18cr

• Shivam Dube 12cr

• Matheesha Pathirana 13cr

• MS Dhoni 4cr

DC retain four players and none of them is Rishabh Pant! It could be the biggest move of the auction. Check the players retained by DC below.

DC retentions

• Axar Patel 16.5cr

• Kuldeep Yadav 13.25cr

• Tristan Stubbs 11cr

• Abhishek Porel 4cr

Heinrich Klaasen will be getting Rs 23cr, the highest cost for retaining a player in the history of IPL. SRH as expected have gone with five retentions.

SRH retentions

• Heinrich Klaasen 23cr

• Pat Cummins 18cr

• Abhishek Sharma 14cr

• Travis Head 14cr

• Nitish Kumar Reddy 6cr 

KL Rahul is another star heading to the auction. LSG have retained five players, two of whom are uncapped.

• Nicholas Pooran 21cr

• Mayank Yadav 11cr

• Ravi Bishnoi 11cr

• Ayush Badoni 4cr

• Mohsin Khan 4cr

Rishabh Pant is surely the biggest name who has been released into the auctioin. DC have decided against retaining Pant and now teams will be aiming to snap the Indian wicket-keeper batter in the auction.

Three of the top Indian pacemen Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami have all been relaeased by their respective franchises. Expect a massive bidding war for all of them.

KKR: INR 48cr-0

RCB:INR 83cr -3

CSK: INR 55cr-1

PBKS: INR 110.50cr-4

LSG: INR 69cr-1

GT:INR 69cr-1

MI: INR 45cr-1

RR: INR 41cr-0

DC: INR 76.25cr-2

SRH: INR 45cr-1

That's it from our side today. It was an exciting day with some reports coming true, some falling flat but overall a good day for IPL fans. Now, we get ready for what promises to be the most exciting auction in recent times. You can read IPL related stories on our website OutlookIndia.