The list of retained and released players by each team ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 mega auction included plenty of surprises on Thursday.
While big names like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen and Nicholas Pooran were retained by their respective teams, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Mitchell Starc and KL Rahul were released ahead of the mega auction.
All 10 cricket teams executed their IPL 2025 retention strategies to maintain a balanced core. Each team could retain up to five capped players, two uncapped players, and a maximum of six players in total.
Teams that retained fewer players will have more Right-to-Match (RTM) options and a larger purse going into the mega auction later this year.
Punjab Kings retained two uncapped players - Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh - and none in the capped category. At the mega auction, they will have four RTM options available for capped players.
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians went for a contrasting approach, retaining five capped players - Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Tilak Varma - and none in the uncapped category.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders released their title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer but used all six of their retentions to keep mystery spinner Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana in the team. Rajasthan Royals also used up all six of their retentions.
Like the Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants, Punjab Kings and Royal Challlenger Bengaluru also let go of their captains from the previous season with Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Sam Curran and Faf du Plessis set to enter the mega auction.
The Chennai Super Kings retained former Indian captain MS Dhoni under the uncapped player category. Per the IPL retention rules, players who did not play international cricket in the last five years came under the uncapped category.
IPL 2025 retention: Players retained and released
* Overseas players
Chennai Super Kings IPL 2025 retention
CSK retained players
- MS Dhoni
- Matheesha Pathirana*
- Ruturaj Gaikwad
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Shivam Dube
CSK released players
- 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
Delhi Capitals IPL 2025 retention
DC retained players
- Axar Patel
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Tristan Stubbs*
- Abishek Porel
DC released players
- 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*
Gujarat Titans IPL 2025 retention
GT retained players
- Rashid Khan*
- Shubman Gill
- B Sai Sudharsan
- Rahul Tewatia
- Shahrukh Khan
GT released players
- 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
- Manav Suthar
- Spencer Johnson*
Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2025 retention
KKR retained players
- Sunil Narine*
- Rinku Singh
- Varun Chakravarthy
- Andre Russell*
- Ramandeep Singh
- Harshit Rana
KKR released players
- 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
Lucknow Super Giants IPL 2025 retention
LSG retained players
- Nicholas Pooran*
- Mayank Yadav
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Mohsin Khan
- Ayush Badoni
LSG released players
- 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*
- Yash Thakur
- Amit Mishra
- Naveen ul Haq*
- M Siddharth
Mumbai Indians IPL 2025 retention
MI retained players
- Rohit Sharma
- Suryakumar Yadav
- Tilak Varma
- Hardik Pandya
- Jasprit Bumrah
MI released players
- 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
- Kwena Maphaka*
- Kumar Kartikeya Singh
- Piyush Chawla
- Akash Madhwal
- Luke Wood*
- Dilshan Madushanka*
- Shreyas Gopal
- Nuwan Thushara*
Punjab Kings IPL 2025 retention
PBKS retained players
- Prabhsimran Singh
- Shashank Singh
PBKS released players
- 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
Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL 2025 retentions
RCB retained players
- Virat Kohli
- Rajat Patidar
- Yash Dayal
RCB released players
- 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
Rajasthan Royals IPL 2025 retention
RR retained players
- Sanju Samson
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Riyan Parag
- Sandeep Sharma
- Shimron Hetmyer
- Dhruv Jurel
RR released players
- 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*
Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL 2025 retention
SRH retained players
- Heinrich Klaasen*
- Pat Cummins*
- Abhishek Sharma
- Travis Head*
- Nitish Kumar Reddy
SRH released players
- 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