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Follow UsThe seeds for a reverting IPL 2025 Auction were soughed on October 31 (Thursday) as all the 10 franchises announced their retentions. The majority of big names like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and many more got value for the brand and got retained by their respective franchises. There were some big releases with Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul saying adios to their respective franchises and moving on to find new homes.
Overall, there were a lot of noteworthy numbers from the historic IPL 2025 retention day. Let's look into them down below:
Biggest bump in price
Heinrich Klaasen - 5.25 crore to 23 crore: 17.75 crore increase
Yashasvi Jaiswal - 4 crore to 18 crore: 14 crore increase
Dhruv Jurel - 20 lakhs to 14 crore: 13.8 crore increase
Matheesha Pathirana - 20 lakhs to 13 crore: 12.8 crore increase
Rinku Singh - 55 lakhs to 13 crore: 12.45 crore increase
Kuldeep Yadav - 2 crore to 13.25 crore: 11.25 crore increase
Mayank Yadav - 20 lakhs to 11 crore: 10.8 crore increase
Rajat Patidar - 20 lakhs to 11 crore: 10.8 crore increase
Riyan Parag - 3.8 crore to 14 crore: 10.2 crore increase
Tristan Stubbs - 50 lakhs to 10 crore: 9.5 crore increase
Sai Sudharsan - 20 lakhs to 8.5 crore: 8.3 crore increase
Tilak Verma - 1.7 crore to 8 crore: 6.3 crore increase
Nitish Reddy - 20 lakhs to 6 crore: 5.8 crore increase
Virat Kohli continued to maintain his aura as being the only player in the 18-year history of IPL to never enter into the IPL Auction as he was retained by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru for a massive 21 crore, making him the first-ever Indian player in IPL to earn a 20+ crore salary.
Players with 20+ crore salary in IPL
Mitchell Starc - 24.75 crore - IPL 2024
Heinrich Klaasen - 23 crore - IPL 2025
Virat Kohli - 21 crore - IPL 2025
Nicholas Pooran - 21 crore - IPL 2025
Pat Cummins - 20.5 crore - IPL 2024
Kohli's IPL salary through retentions prior to mega auctions
- 2008 – 12 lakhs (U19 draft)
- 2011 – 8.28 crore
- 2014 – 12.5 crore
- 2018 – 17 crore
- 2022 – 15 crore
- 2025 - 21 crore
Among all the stars getting massive pay bumps, it was great to see five players who entered the IPL as replacement players end up being retained by their sides heading into the 2025 edition. Matheesha Pathirana, Harshit Rana and Rajat Patidar all earned a deserving seat in the retention lists.
From replacement to retention - IPL 2025 Auction
Matheesha Pathirana (CSK)
- 2022 – 20 Lakhs (replacement for Adam Milne)
- 2025 - 13 crore
Rajat Patidar (RCB)
- 2022 – 20 lakhs (replacement for Luvnith Sisodia)
- 2025 - 11 crore
Sandeep Sharma (RR)
- 2023 – 20 lakhs (replacement to Prasidh Krishna)
- 2025 – 4 crore
Harshit Rana (KKR)
- 2022 – 20 lakhs (replacement for Rasikh Salam)
- 2025 – 4 crore
Abishek Porel (DC)
- 2022 – 20 lakhs (replacement for Rishabh Pant)
- 2025 – 4 crore
Even though a majority of the players found a bump in their salary, a few had to accept less than what their previous contract provided. MS Dhoni, who is now under the 'uncapped' player section, saw a drop of eight crore from his previous salary. Andre Russell too lost a quarter of his previous salary. Pat Cummins, who became the first player in IPL to earn 20+ crore, got retained for 18 crore, and Rahul Tewatia settled himself for four crore, losing five crore in the process.
Drop in purse size
MS Dhoni - 12 crore to 4 crore - 8 crore less
Andre Russell - 16 crore to 12 crore - 4 crore less
Pat Cummins - 20.5 crore to 18 crore - 2.5 crore less
Rahul Tewatia - 9 crore to 4 crore - 5 crore less
Heading into the mega auction, teams have their purses ready. Punjab Kings once again enter another IPL auction with the largest purse, being the only team with a 100+ crore purse. Rajasthan Royals have the smallest purse of 41 crore, as they invested the remaining 79 crore in retaining their core.
Teams Purse Remaining (Biggest to Smallest purse size)
PBKS - 110.5 crore
RCB - 83 crore
DC - 73 crore
GT - 69 crore
LSG - 69 crore
KKR -51 crore
CSK - 55 crore
MI -45 crore
SRH - 45 crore
RR - 41 crore
Punjab retained the fewest players, so they have the most RTMs available, four. KKR and RR won't have the luxury of the RTM as they retained a maximum of six players. SRH and MI have one RTM, which they can only exercise on an uncapped player, as the five players they retained were all capped players.
RTMs Available
PBKS - 4
RCB - 3
DC - 2
CSK - 1
LSG - 1
GT - 1
SRH - 1 (Only uncapped player)
MI - 1 (Only uncapped player)
KKR - 0
RR - 0
Overall, a total of 46 players were retained with 12 uncapped retentions and 10 overseas retentions.
Retention Summary
Total players Retained - 46
RR - 6 | KKR - 6 | MI - 5 | LSG - 5 | GT - 5 | CSK - 5| SRH - 5 | DC - 4 | RCB - 3 | PBKS - 2
Uncapped Retentions - 12
PBKS - 2 | LSG - 2 | GT - 2 | KKR - 2 | DC - 1 | RR - 1 | CSK - 1 | RCB -1
Overseas Retentions - 10
SRH - 3 | KKR - 2 | RR - 1 | CSK - 1 | LSG - 1 |DC - 1 | GT -1
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