Retaining top talents is an important aspect of Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket. In 2025, IPL teams had the option of retaining up to six players due to the mega auction.
Top players like Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli(King of IPL), MS Dhoni, and Hardik Pandya were retained by their respective teams. Some top players were released by their franchises.
In this article, we will take a look at the complete IPL team retention list for 2025.
The retention list of IPL was filled with many surprises and shocks. Fans were shocked to see some names in the released player list. Before taking a look at the retention list and the names of the players, let’s know some important details about IPL Retention 2025 live.
Now, let’s look at the retention list of IPL by individual franchises.
This season, Mumbai Indians, the most dangerous IPL team chose to retain five players including their core batting unit of Rhot Sharma, Suyrakumar Yadav, and Tilak Verma. Going into auction, they were left with INR 45 crore in the purse.
Since there was an option to retain six players for every franchise, they still had a Right to Match (RTM) card for one Indian uncapped player.
Have a look at the MI retained players in 2025.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Jasprit Bumrah (₹18 Cr) Suryakumar Yadav (₹16.35 Cr) Hardik Pandya (₹16.35 Cr) Rohit Sharma (₹16.30 Cr) Tilak Varma (₹8 Cr) | Dewald Brevis Ishan Kishan Harvik Desai Tim David Vishnu Vinod Arjun Tendulkar Mohammad Nabi Romario Shepherd Shams Mulani Nehal Wadhera Gerald Coetzee Anshul Kamboj Naman Dhir Shivalik Sharma |
CSK is one of the most successful teams in IPL history, they have achieved this title by not tinkering much with their squad. Following MI’s footsteps, CSK also chose to retain five players including MS Dhoni (Godfather of IPL). They are left with 55 crores in the purse.
Have a look at the CSK retention list.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Ruturaj Gaikwad (₹18 Cr) Matheesha Pathirana (₹13 Cr) Shivam Dube (₹12 Cr) Ravindra Jadeja (₹18 Cr) MS Dhoni (₹4 Cr) | Ajay Mandal Ajinkya Rahane Deepak Chahar Devon Conway Maheesh Theekshana Mitchell Santner Moeen Ali Mukesh Choudhary Nishant Sindhu Prashant Solanki Rajvardhan Hangargekar Shaik Rasheed Simarjeet Singh Tushar Deshpande Rachin Ravindra Shardul Thakur Daryl Mitchell Sameer Rizvi Mustafizur Rahman Avanish Rao Aravelly |
The lowest scorer team of IPL, RCB’s retention strategy was not what everyone expected as they chose to retain only Virat Kohli (having most centuries in IPL history), Rajat Patidar, and Yash Dayal. They decided to let go of their star players like Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell.
They are one of the teams with the highest money in the purse when going into auction. RCB had INR 83 crore to build a new team. RCB also had three RTMs as well.
Have a look at the RCB retention list.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Virat Kohli (₹21 Cr) Rajat Patidar (₹11 Cr) Yash Dayal (₹5 Cr) | Faf du Plessis Anuj Rawat Dinesh Karthik (retired) Suyash S Prabhudessai Will Jacks Saurav Chauhan Glenn Maxwell Mahipal Lomror Karn Sharma Cameron Green Swapnil Singh Mayank Dagar Manoj Bhandage Akash Deep Alzarri Joseph Lockie Ferguson Mohammed Siraj Tom Curran Reece Topley Himanshu Sharma Vyshak Vijay Kumar Rajan Kumar |
Delhi Capitals, one of the most unsuccessful teams, let go of their star batter, Rishabh Pant, this year, which was quite a shock to fans. Delhi has opted for four players in this year’s retention list. They have tried to do that to make a solid squad for the future because they have gone with a younger lot of players. With INR 73 crore remaining in the purse, their prospects look good.
Have a look at the Delhi Capitals retention list.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Axar Patel (₹16.5 Cr) Kuldeep Yadav (₹13.25 Cr) Tristan Stubbs (₹10 Cr) Abhishek Porel (₹4 Cr) | Anrich Nortje David Warner (retired) Ishant Sharma Lalit Yadav Mitchell Marsh Mukesh Kumar Pravin Dubey Prithvi Shaw Rishabh Pant Syed Khaleel Ahmed Vicky Ostwal Yash Dhull Harry Brook Ricky Bhui Kumar Kushagra Rasikh Dar Jhye Richardson Sumit Kumar Shai Hope Swastik Chhikara Jake Fraser-McGurk |
Kolkata Knight Riders retained their full slots and spent the most money on retaliations. However, the most appalling news came from the released players group in KKR. The Kolkata team decided to part ways with their winning captain from the IPL 2024, Shreyas Iyer.
They were left with INR 51 crore rupees in the purse without any RTM.
Have a look at the KKR retention list for 2025.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Rinku Singh (₹13 Cr) Varun Chakaravarthy (₹12 Cr) Sunil Narine (₹12 Cr) Andre Russell (₹12 Cr) Harshit Rana (₹4 Cr) Ramandeep Singh (₹4 Cr) | Shreyas Iyer Rahmanullah Gurbaz Nitish Rana Sherfane Rutherford Phil Salt KS Bharat Manish Pandey Angkrish Raghuvanshi Anukul Roy Venkatesh Iyer Suyash Sharma Allah Ghazanfar Dushmantha Chameera Sakib Hussain Vaibhav Arora Mitchell Starc Chetan Sakariya |
Just like KKR, LSG also decided to part ways with their captain KL Rahul this season. Lucknow has five retained players for IPL 2025 and Nicholas Pooran is the highest paid with INR 21 crore.
They have an INR 69 crore purse remaining to build their team around the core retentions. They can also use three RTMs to purchase some players back.
Have a look at the LSG retention list for 2025.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Nicholas Pooran (₹21 Cr) Ravi Bishnoi (₹11 Cr) Mayank Yadav (₹11 Cr) Mohsin Khan (₹4 Cr) Ayush Badoni (₹4 Cr) | KL Rahul Devdutt Padikkal Quinton de Kock Ashton Turner Deepak Hooda Krishnappa Gowtham Krunal Pandya Kyle Mayers Marcus Stoinis Mohd. Arshad Khan Prerak Mankad Yudhvir Singh Arshin Kulkarni David Willey Shivam Mavi Shamar Joseph Matt Henry |
SRH, team with record of highest powerplay score in IPL history also chose to retain five players for IPL 2025. Heinrich Klassen was one of the best-performing batters in last year’s IPL. That is why SRH had to pay a premium to retain the services of Klassen. They paid a lot of money to retain these five players and are left with only INR 45 crore in the purse for the remaining players.
Have a look at the SRH retention list for 2025.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Heinrich Klaasen (₹23 Cr) Pat Cummins (₹18 Cr) Abhishek Sharma (₹14 Cr) Nitish Reddy (₹6 Cr) Travis Head (₹14 Cr) | Abdul Samad Aiden Markram Rahul Tripathi Glenn Phillips Mayank Agarwal Anmolpreet Singh Upendra Singh Yadav Marco Jansen Washington Sundar Sanvir Singh Wanindu Hasaranga Akash Singh Shahbaz Ahamad Bhuvneshwar Kumar Fazalhaq Farooqi Jaydev Unadkat T Natarajan Umran Malik Mayank Markande Jhathavedh Subramanyan Vijayakanth Viyaskanth |
Gujarat Titans were balanced in their approach to retaining top talents in their team. With five players, they created a balance of experience and youth. Apart from the players, didn’t even have to shell out a lot of money. They still have a sizable INR 69 crore remaining in the purse to build a great team.
Have a look at the Ahmedabad retention list for 2025.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Rashid Khan (₹18 Cr) Shubman Gill (₹16.5 Cr) Sai Sudharsan (₹8.5 Cr) Rahul Tewatia (₹4 Cr) Shahrukh Khan (₹4 Cr) | BR Sharath Abhinav Manohar Sandeep Warrier Gurnoor Brar Darshan Nalkande David Miller Jayant Yadav Joshua Little Kane Williamson Matthew Wade Mohammad Shami Mohit Sharma Noor Ahmad Sai Kishore Vijay Shankar Wriddhiman Saha Azmatullah Omarzai Umesh Yadav Sushant Mishra Kartik Tyagi |
In this list, Punjab is the only team to retain the lowest number of players. With only two retained players, they are looking to build their squad from scratch. Because of only two retentions, they have the highest purse remaining in the auction with INR 110.5 crore. The team has record of highest success run chases in IPL.
Have a look at the PBKS IPL retention 2025 live.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Shashank Singh (₹5.5 Cr) Prabhsimran Singh (₹4 Cr) | Shikhar Dhawan (retired) Jitesh Sharma Jonny Bairstow Liam Livingstone Harpreet Bhatia Rilee Rossouw Chris Woakes Vishwanath Pratap Singh Ashutosh Sharma Tanay Thyagarajan Atharva Taide Rishi Dhawan Sam Curran Sikandar Raza Shivam Singh Prince Choudhary Harpreet Brar Arshdeep Singh Kagiso Rabada Nathan Ellis Rahul Chahar Vidwath Kaverappa Harshal Patel |
Rajasthan chose to build this year’s squad around their star players like Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal. This is why they have gone for a maximum of six retained players. To retain these six players, RR had to shell out a lot of cheese. After the retention, RR is left with only INR 41 crore rupees.
Have a look at the RR IPL retention 2025 live.
| Retained Players | Released Players |
| Sanju Samson (₹18 Cr) Yashasvi Jaiswal (₹18 Cr) Riyan Parag (₹14 Cr) Dhruv Jurel (₹14 Cr) Shimron Hetmyer (₹11 Cr) Sandeep Sharma (₹4 Cr) | Jos Buttler Kunal Rathore Donovan Ferreira Rovman Powell Shubham Dubey Tom Kohler-Cadmore Ravichandran Ashwin Tanush Kotian Abid Mushtaq Avesh Khan Kuldeep Sen Navdeep Saini Keshav Maharaj Trent Boult Yuzvendra Chahal Nandre Burger |
Check out the above IPL Retention 2025 live list to see whether your favorite player is retained or not by a franchise owner or management.
Taking a glance at the list, some names were expected and some were not. Released player’s names were especially shocking to most of the fans. Big names like Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and more are going into the auction. You can go ahead and check out our IPL 2025 auction page to look at whether released players get selected or not.
