New Delhi: The 10 existing franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday submitted their list of retained players with various combinations. A total of 46 players were retained by the IPL franchises in total as the tournament approaches for a mega auction later in the year.
The IPL governing council permitted each franchise to retain not more than six players before the auction with a maximum of five capped and two uncapped players part of the retention list. Only Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders exercised the right to retain all six players though the latter named two uncapped players in its list.
The top prize for a player to be retained in the auction was INR 18 crore. However, some of the teams broke their banks to keep their star players around them. The likes of Virat Kohli (INR 21 crore for Royal Challengers Bengaluru), Heinrich Klaasen (INR 23 crore for Sunrisers Hyderabad), and Nicholas Pooran (INR 21 crore for Lucknow Super Giants) were the top expensive players retained by their respective teams.
There were some shocking news with some of the key players being released by the franchise despite being consistent for their side. Here we take a look at the most shocking releases seen in the recent IPL 2025 retentions.
1. Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer was the captain when Kolkata Knight Riders lifted their third IPL trophy in Chennai earlier this year in May. Iyer was sold to the Kolkata outfit for a whopping sum of INR 12.25 crore in the last mega auction. He played only two seasons with them and missed one (IPL 2023) due to a back injury.
He made 351 runs with the bat at a strike rate of 146.86 last season. It was a moment of redemption for the Mumbai player after he was dropped from BCCI’s central contract list last season. With the franchise retaining three players for INR 12 crore, including the senior duo of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell, it was an out-of-the-box call to not retain Iyer the captain.
Young and destructive batter Rinku Singh was sold for INR 13 crore, which was the most spend by the franchise in this retention period. The conversation between the KKR team management and Iyer at the time remains private, but the franchise certainly must have a strong reason to be in a position to drop Iyer from its squad.
2. Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant has ended his nine-year journey with Delhi Capitals after he was released from the squad with the franchise retaining four players in Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, and Abhishek Porel. There were many contrasting reports that the Capitals would keep Pant as their top retention, but many things folded up after a point, which led to the management releaing their star player.
With 111 matches and 3284 runs, Pant had the most IPL appearances for the Delhi Capitals and also was their leading run-getter. He was part of the turnaround for the franchise when they reached the knockout stage for three editions in a row, including the final in 2020.
3. If Buttler
Jos Buttler has the second most IPL centuries (7) in the IPL after Royal Challengers Bangalore star player Virat Kohli (8 centuries). Buttler has been a fearless batter at the top for RR ever since he joined them in IPL 2018. He is the only player to score over 3000 runs with the bat after Ajinkya Rahane (3098) and Sanju Samson (3934) for the Royals.
Buttler’s most impressive season in the Royals shirt was IPL 2022 when the England skipper, astoundingly, scored 863 runs in 17 matches at a strike rate of 149.05 with the help of four IPL centuries. Perhaps his injury woes, which have kept him out of action for England since T20 World Cup in June could be the reason for the Rajasthan outfit to overlook Buttler’s services.
4. Arshdeep Singh
Arshdeep Singh is a T20 World Cup winner for India and currently India’s second ranked bowler in ICC T20I rankings. With 76 wickets from 65 IPL matches at an economy rate of 9.02, Arshdeep was just eight wickets shy of breaking Piyush Chawla’s record of 84 scalps to become the all-time leading wicket-taker for Punjab Kings. Arshdeep was one of the two retentions Punjab made before the previous mega auction, though as an uncapped player.
He was consistent among the wickets in the last two seasons, having picked up 17 and 19 wickets in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, respectively.
5. Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis was the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore for the last three seasons, having taken over the reigns from Kohli. RCB made only three retentions with Kohli being the top-drawer and Yash Dayal being the impact player. It was surprising to see the franchise not retain the services of their skipper. Perhaps they want a new player to lead them or Kohli is likely to return back in the role.
The South African batter scored 1636 runs during his time as an RCB opener and broke into the top five run-scorers of the team of all-time, only behind Kohli (8428), AB de Villiers (4522), and Chris Gayle (3420).
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