The Indian Premier League (IPL) is in the midst of a dramatic off-season with teams reshaping their squads for the 2025 season. One of the biggest surprises came from the Rajasthan Royals, who opted not to retain England’s white-ball captain Jos Buttler. This decision is particularly noteworthy given Buttler’s stellar performance in the IPL, including a Most Valuable Player award in 2023.
The Royals were allowed to keep a maximum of six players from last season, with a limit of five capped international players. Notably, no England player made it onto any team’s retention list.
The Punjab Kings followed suit, releasing a quartet of England players: Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes, and Sam Curran. Curran was purchased for a then-IPL record £1.85m in 2023, highlighting the significant financial investment made by the Kings in these players. While these players have been released, they could still be picked up by other franchises in the upcoming Mega Auction.
The defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, also made some big changes, releasing their title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer, along with Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc (the IPL’s most expensive player in 2024) and England’s Phil Salt.
Meanwhile, the Sunrisers Hyderabad have retained some key players, including South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen (for a whopping 23 crore Indian rupees, equivalent to £2.1m), and the Australian duo of Pat Cummins and Travis Head.
Other notable retentions include Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians), Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), and Ravindra Jadeja (Chennai Super Kings). However, the IPL also saw some big names released, including KL Rahul (Lucknow Super Giants) and Ravichandran Ashwin (Rajasthan Royals).
The date for the Mega Auction is yet to be announced, but the IPL has introduced a new rule for 2025: players withdrawing from the league at short notice will be banned from participating for the following two seasons.
Sky Sports, the dedicated home of the IPL, will continue to broadcast both the men’s and women’s tournaments until at least 2027. Fans in the UK and Ireland can expect to see the greatest players in the world compete in the world’s most exciting T20 league.
Who has been retained? (Correct as of October 31, 2024)
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Chennai Super Kings:
MS Dhoni, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Matheesha Pathirana.*
Delhi Capitals:
Axar Patel, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Kuldeep Yadav.*
Gujarat Titans:
Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia.*
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh.*
Lucknow Super Giants:
Ayush Badoni, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Mayank Yadav.*
Mumbai Indians:
Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav.*
Punjab Kings:
Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh.*
Rajasthan Royals:
Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Sanju Samson, Sandeep Sharma.*
Royal Challengers Bengaluru:
Yash Dayal, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar.*
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma.With a new rule in place and significant player movement, the 2025 IPL promises to be one of the most captivating seasons yet.
