IPL Retentions 2025: KL Rahul, Pant, Shreyas head to auctions, Dhoni retained by CSK

IPL player retention list revealed with surprises: Russell retained, Iyer released, Klaasen most expensive, and more.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is retained, but Rishabh Pant is not. Andre Russell is retained, but Shreyas Iyer is not. Rajat Patidar is retained, K.L. Rahul is not.

The suspense over player retention ahead of the Indian Premier League’s (IPL’s) player retentions ahead of next month’s big player auction was over on Thursday (October 31, 2024) evening with the official list of retentions having been announced.

In all, 46 players were retained by their respective franchises from a maximum of 60 slots available. It means that the player auction will see a maximum of 204 spots up for grab next month.

As expected – and reported by The Hindu earlier – Pant, Shreyas Iyer and K.L. Rahul were released by their respective franchises. While Heinrich Klaasen has emerged as the most expensive retention at ₹23 crore for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Virat Kohli is the most expensive Indian to be retained at ₹21 crore by Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Mumbai Indians, as reported earlier, have kept the awesome foursome –Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav – on its roster along with promising Tilak Varma.

Chennai Super Kings have decided to persist with captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Matheesha Pathirana, Dhoni and Shivam Dube. Dhoni — the veteran — and Sandeep Sharma (Rajasthan Royals) have been retained as uncapped players, thanks to a modification in uncapped player regulations.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Nitish Kumar Reddy.