IPL 2025: CSK retain Dhoni, Pant enters auction pool and more; full list of players retained and released here

In anticipation of the 2025 mega auction, IPL franchises revealed their final list of retained players on Thursday. As the deadline to confirm retained players closed at 5 PM, the omission of some key players across teams surprised many fans.

In what comes as good news for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) fans, the team retained the legendary wicketkeeper-batter and former captain MS Dhoni for Rs 4 crore. The 43-year-old veteran has been retained as an uncapped player, thanks to the IPL's revised rules that classify players who haven't played international cricket for five years as uncapped. In the previous IPL season, Dhoni’s batting contributions were limited, primarily due to managing his workload following knee surgery. Despite facing only 73 balls across 11 innings in 2024, he expressed a desire to enjoy his remaining playing years and support the upcoming stars.

Along with Dhoni, CSK retained Ruturaj Gaikwad for Rs 18 crore, Sri Lanka's Matheesha Pathirana for Rs 13 crore, Shivam Dube for Rs 12 crore and Ravindra Jadeja for Rs 18 crore.

In no surprises, Mumbai Indians retained Jasprit Bumrah for Rs 18 crore, Suryakumar Yadav for Rs 16.35 crore, captain Hardik Pandya for Rs 16.35 crore, former skipper Rohit Sharma for Rs 16.30 crore and Tilak Varma for Rs 8 crore. Some of the big names not retained are Ishan Kishan and Tim David.

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli was retained by Royal Challengers Bengaluru for Rs 21 crore, making him the highest paid Indian player during the IPL 2025 retention. Along with Kohli, RCB retained Rajat Patidar for Rs 11 crore and Yash Dayal for Rs 5 crore. Star players like Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis and Cameron Green will now enter the auction pool.

Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul enter IPL 2025 mega auction pool

Meanwhile, in a surprising turn of events, Delhi Capitals has opted not to retain their star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant. After several months of negotiations, the franchise and Pant could not reach an agreement, resulting in his release ahead of the auction. This decision marks a significant shift for the Capitals, as Pant has been a pivotal player since joining the franchise in 2016. However, DC retained Axar Patel for Rs 16.5 crore, Kuldeep Yadav for Rs 13.5 crore, South Africa's Tristan Stubbs for Rs 10 crore and Abhishek Porel for Rs 4 crore.

Kolkata Knight Riders parted ways with their 2024 title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer. Iyer's leadership saw KKR clinch their first title since 2014, but it seems the franchise is looking to rebuild. The team has opted to retain Rinku Singh for Rs 13 crore, Varun Chakravarthy for Rs 12 crore, Sunil Narine for Rs 12 crore, West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell for Rs 12 crore, Harshit Rana for 4 crore and Ramandeep Singh for Rs 4 crore.

As for Lucknow Super Giants, the team opted out of retaining KL Rahul, their captain since its inception, marking a significant shift in LSG’s approach as they prepare for the auction. LSG have instead opted to retain Nicholas Pooran for Rs 21 crore, Ravi Bishnoi for Rs 11 crore, Mayank Yadav for Rs 11 crore, Mohsin Khan for Rs 4 crore and Ayush Badoni for Rs 4 crore.

Rajasthan Royals, meanwhile, retained Sanju Samson for Rs 18 crore, Yashasvi Jaiswal for Rs 18 crore, Riyan Parag for Rs 14 crore, Dhruv Jurel for Rs 14 crore, Shimron Hetmyer for Rs 11 crore and Sandeep Sharma for Rs 4 crore. Notably, England’s white-ball captain Jos Buttler and Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal were not part of the retention list.

Gujarat Titans retained key players Shubman Gill for Rs 16.5 crore, Rashid Khan for Rs 18 crore, B Sai Sudharsan for Rs 8.5 crore, Rahul Tewatia for Rs 4 crore, and Shahrukh Khan for Rs 4 crore, ensuring they maintain a strong core heading into the 2025 season.

Sunrisers Hyderabad retained Pat Cummins for Rs 18 crore, Abhishek Sharma for Rs 14 crore, Nitish Reddy for Rs 6 crore, Heinrich Klaasen for Rs 23 crore and Travis Head for Rs 14 crore.

Punjab Kings retained only two players i.e. Shashank Singh for Rs 5.5 crore and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 4 crore.

Here's a look at list of players retained an released by IPL franchises ahead of 2025 mega auction:

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

Retained

MS Dhoni
Ruturaj Gaikwad
Ravindra Jadeja
Shivam Dube
Matheesha Pathirana (Sri Lanka)

Released

Ajay Mandal
Ajinkya Rahane
Deepak Chahar
Devon Conway (New Zealand)
Maheesh Theekshana (Sri Lanka)
Mitchell Santner (New Zealand)
Moeen Ali (England)
Mukesh Choudhary
Nishant Sindhu
Prashant Solanki
Rajvardhan Hangargekar
Shaik Rasheed
Simarjeet Singh
Tushar Deshpande
Rachin Ravindra (New Zealand)
Shardul Thakur
Daryl Mitchell (New Zealand)
Sameer Rizvi
Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh)
Avanish Rao Aravelly

DELHI CAPITAL

Retained

Axar Patel
Kuldeep Yadav
Tristan Stubbs (South Africa)
Abhishek Porel

Released

Rishabh Pant
Anrich Nortje (South Africa)
David Warner (Australia)
Ishant Sharma
Lalit Yadav
Lungisani Ngidi (South Africa)
Mitchell Marsh (Australia)
Mukesh Kumar
Pravin Dubey
Prithvi Shaw
Syed Khaleel Ahmed
Vicky Ostwal
Yash Dhull
Harry Brook (England)
Ricky Bhui
Kumar Kushagra
Rasikh Dar
Jhye Richardson (Australia)
Sumit Kumar
Shai Hope (West Indies)
Swastik Chhikara

GUJARAT TITANS

Retained

Shubhman Gill
Rashid Khan (Afghanistan)
B Sai Sudharsan
Rahul Tewatia
Shahrukh Khan

Released

Abhinav Manohar
Darshan Nalkande
David Miller (South Africa)
Jayant Yadav
Joshua Little (Ireland)
Kane Williamson (New Zealand)
Matthew Wade (Australia)
Mohammed Shami
Mohit Sharma
Noor Ahmad (Afghanistan)
R Sai Kishore
Vijay Shankar
Wriddhiman Saha
Azmatullah Omarzai (Afghanistan)
Umesh Yadav
Sushant Mishra
Kartik Tyagi
Manav Suthar
Spencer Johnson (Australia)
Robin Minz

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Retained

Andre Russell (West Indies)
Sunil Narine (West Indies)
Rinku Singh
Harshit Rana
Ramandeep Singh
Varun Chakravarthy

Released

Shreyas Iyer
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan)
Jason Roy (England)
Suyash Sharma
Anukul Roy
Venkatesh Iyer
Vaibhav Arora
KS Bharat
Chetan Sakariya
Mitchell Starc (Australia)
Angkrish Raghuvanshi
Sherfane Rutherford (West Indies)
Manish Pandey
Mujeeb Ur Rehman (Afghanistan)
Gus Atkinson (England)
Sakib Hussain

LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS

Retained

Nicholas Pooran (West Indies)
Mayank Yadav
Ravi Bishnoi
Mohsin Khan
Ayush Badoni

Released

KL Rahul
Quinton de Kock (South Africa)
Kyle Mayers (West Indies)
Marcus Stoinis (Australia)
Deepak Hooda
Naveen ul Haq (Afghanistan)
Krunal Pandya
Yudhvir Singh
Prerak Mankad
Yash Thakur
Amit Mishra
Mark Wood (England)
K Gowtham
Devdutt Padikkal
Shivam Mavi
Arshin Kulkarni
M Siddharth
Ashton Turner (Australia)
David Willey (England)
Mohammed Arshad Khan

MUMBAI INDIANS

Retained

Jasprit Bumrah
Rohit Sharma
Hardik Pandya
Suryakumar Yadav
Tilak Varma

Released

Ishan Kishan
Dewald Brevis (South Africa)
Tim David (Australia)
Vishnu Vinod
Arjun Tendulkar
Shams Mulani
Nehal Wadhera
Kumar Kartikeya
Piyush Chawla
Akash Madhwal
Jason Behrendorff (Australia)
Romario Shepherd (West Indies)
Gerald Coetzee (South Africa)
Dilshan Madushanka (Sri Lanka)
Shreyas Gopal
Nuwan Thushara (Sri Lanka)
Naman Dhir
Anshul Kamboj
Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan)
Shivalik Sharma

PUNJAB KINGS

Retained

Prabhsimran Singh
Shashank Singh

Released

Shikhar Dhawan - Retired
Arshdeep Singh
Ashutosh Sharma
Liam Livingstone (England)
Jonny Bairstow (England)
Jitesh Sharma
Shivam Singh
Rahul Chahar
Harpreet Bhatia
Harpreet Brar
Atharva Taide
Vidwath Kaverappa
Rishi Dhawan
Kagiso Rabada (South Africa)
Sam Curran (England)
Nathan Ellis (Australia)
Sikandar Raza (Zimbabwe)
Harshal Patel
Chris Woakes (England)
Vishwanath Pratap Singh
Tanay Thyagarajan
Prince Choudhary
Rilee Rossouw (South Africa)

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Retained

Sanju Samson
Yashavi Jaiswal
Riyan Parag
Sandeep Sharma
Dhruv Jurel
Shimron Hetmyer (West Indies)

Released

Jos Buttler (England)
Yuzvendra Chahal
Donovan Ferreira (South Africa)
Kunal Rathore
Ravichandran Ashwin
Kuldeep Sen
Navdeep Saini
Prasidh Krishna
Trent Boult (New Zealand)
Adam Zampa (Australia)
Avesh Khan
Rovman Powell (West Indies)
Shubham Dubey
Tom Kohler Cadmore (England)
Nandre Burger (South Africa)
Abid Mushtaq

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU

Retained

Virat Kohli
Rajat Patidar
Yash Dayal

Released

Faf du Plessis (South Africa)
Glenn Maxwell (Australia)
Mohammed Siraj
Anuj Rawat
Dinesh Karthik
Suyash Prabhudessai
Will Jacks (England)
Mahipal Lomror
Karn Sharma
Manoj Bhandage
Vyshak Vijaykumar
Akash Deep
Reece Topley (England)
Himanshu Sharma
Rajan Kumar
Mayank Dagar
Cameron Green (Australia)
Alzarri Joseph (West Indies)
Tom Curran (England)
Lockie Ferguson (New Zealand)
Swapnil Singh
Saurav Chuahan

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Retained

Heinrich Klaasen (South African)
Pat Cummins (Australia)
Abhishek Sharma
Travis Head (Australia)
Nitish Kumar Reddy

Released

Abdul Samad
Aiden Markram (South Africa)
Rahul Tripathi
Glenn Phillips (New Zealand)
Mayank Agarwal
Anmolpreet Singh
Upendra Singh Yadav
Marco Jansen (South Africa)
Washington Sundar
Sanvir Singh
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
T Natarajan
Mayank Markande
Umran Malik
Fazalhaq Farooqi (Afghanistan)
Shahbaz Ahmed
Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka)
Jaydev Unadkat
Akash Singh
Jhathavedh Subramanyan

According to the IPL retention guidelines released ahead of the mega auction, teams will incur a deduction of Rs 18 crore from their increased auction purse of Rs 120 crore for the first retained player, Rs 14 crore for the second, and Rs 11 crore for the third. For uncapped players, each retention will cost the team Rs 4 crore. If a team retains five capped players, they will lose a total of Rs 75 crore from their auction budget.

The mega auction is expected to take place overseas in the last week of November. The auction purse has been raised from Rs 100 crore to Rs 120 crore compared to last year’s auction.

The total salary cap now includes the auction purse, incremental performance pay, and match fees. A new match fee of Rs 7.5 lakh per game has been introduced for the upcoming season.

Teams have the option to retain up to six players from their existing squads through either retention or the right to match, marking the highest number of retainable players in IPL history.