IPL 2025: RCB has spent Rs 21 Crore to retain Virat Kohli for the new season. Here’s how much the 10 teams have invested in keeping their other key players

The IPL 2025 mega auction will take place on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A total of 1,574 players have registered for the auction, including 1,165 Indian players and 409 international players. Among them, 320 are restricted players, 1,224 are uncapped and 30 players are from associated cricket nations. However, there are only 204 places up for grabs.

The BCCI had set a maximum expenditure limit of Rs 120 crore for each team. This means that the team should not be formed with more than Rs 120 million. Each IPL franchise can have a squad of up to 25 players, including the holdovers.

This season, teams were allowed to keep up to six players. Of these, a maximum of five could be players with restriction, and two without restriction. A total of 46 players were retained by the 10 franchises. The costliest retention was by Sunrisers Hyderabad, who paid a whopping Rs 23 crore for South African wicketkeeper-batsman Heinrich Klaasen.

After retaining players, teams have varying amounts of money left for the IPL 2025 mega auction. Punjab Kings lead with the biggest purse of Rs 110.5 crore, followed by Royal Challengers Bangalore with Rs 83 crore, and Delhi Capitals with Rs 73 crore. Both Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants have Rs 69 crore each. Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders will participate in the auction with Rs 51 crore, Chennai Super Kings have Rs 55 crore, while Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians each have Rs 45 crore. Additionally, Rajasthan Royals have the smallest purse at Rs 41 crore.

IPL 2025: RCB has spent Rs 21 Crore to retain Virat Kohli for the new season. Here’s how much the 10 teams have invested in keeping their other key players

1. Mumbai Indians Five-time champions Mumbai Indians retained five players and now have a residual purse of Rs 45 crore along with a Right to Match (RTM) card. Teams had the option of either retaining all six players outright prior to the auction or using a mix of outright retention and the RTM option during the auction.

Jasprit Bumrah, the second-highest wicket-taker for Mumbai Indians in IPL history, is their costliest retainer at Rs 18 crore, followed by Suryakumar Yadav (Rs 16.35 crore), Hardik Pandya (Rs 16.35 crore), Rohit Sharma ( Rs 16:30 crore) and Tilak Varma (Rs 8 crore).

2.Chennai Super Kings

The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings also saw five retentions, including Gaikwad (Rs 18 crore), Ravindra Jadeja (Rs 18 crore), Matheesha Pathirana (Rs 13 crore), Shivam Dube (Rs 12 crore) and former captain MS Dhoni ( DKK 4 million). CSK are now left with Rs 55 crore in their auction purse and an RTM card.

3. Kolkata Knight Riders

Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders retained six players, with Rinku Singh being the most expensive (Rs 13 crore). Surprisingly, Shreyas Iyer, who captained them to the 2024 title, was not retained. Other key retentions include Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Varun Chakaravarthy at Rs 12 crore each along with Harshit Rana and Ramandeep Singh at Rs 4 crore each. KKR now has a purse of Rs 63 crore left for the auction, but no RTM option.

4. Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Royal Challengers Bengaluru retained three players, including Virat Kohli, who was retained for Rs 21 crore. Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal were also detained for Rs 11 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively. Eager to claim their maiden IPL title, RCB go into the auction with a purse of Rs 85 crore and three RTM options.

5. Sunrisers Hyderabad

The costliest retention was made by 2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad, who retained Heinrich Klaasen for a whopping Rs 23 crore. The other four players they retained are Pat Cummins (Rs 18 crore), Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head (Rs 14 crore each) and Nitiesh Reddy (Rs 6 crore). They are now left with Rs 45 crore and one RTM option.

6. Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals, champions in the inaugural IPL season, have just Rs 41 crore left in their purse after spending Rs 79 crore on retentions. Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Sanju Samson have been retained for Rs 18 crore each, followed by Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel (Rs 14 crore each), Shimron Hetmyer (Rs 11 crore) and Sandeep Sharma (Rs 4 crore). The Royals surprised everyone by not retaining the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal and Jos Buttler.

7. Lucknow Super Giants

Lucknow Super Giants’ costliest retention is wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran at Rs 21 crore and it remains to be seen whether the explosive Caribbean cricketer can justify the sizeable investment the team has made in him. The other four players retained by LSG are Ravi Bishnoi and Mayank Yadav at Rs 11 crore each, and Mohsin Khan and Ayush Badoni at Rs 4 crore each. LSG is now left with Rs 69 crore and one RTM option for the auction.

8. Gujarat Titans

Champions of IPL 2022, Gujarat Titans spent Rs 51 crore on five retentions and now have a remaining balance of Rs 69 crore and an RTM option. Their costliest retention was Rashid Khan at Rs 18 crore, followed by Shubman Gill (Rs 16.5 crore), B Sai Sudharsan (Rs 8.5 crore), Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan (Rs 4 crore each).

9. Punjab Kings

Punjab Kings have the biggest purse at Rs 110.5 crore because they retained only two players – Shashank Singh (Rs 5.5 crore) and Prabhsimran Singh (Rs 4 crore). Having never won an IPL title, the Kings would be looking for a major squad overhaul in the two-day mega auction.

10. Delhi Capitals

It will be interesting to see if Delhi Capitals go all out to bring back their former captain Shreyas Iyer who has been released by KKR. They are left with a purse of Rs 76.25 crore and two RTM options after retaining Axar Patel (Rs 16.5 crore), Kuldeep Yadav (Rs 13.25 crore), Tristan Stubbs (Rs 10 crore) and Abhishek Leek (Rs 4 crore). Rishabh Pant was not retained by the franchise as he chose to step away voluntarily due to some disagreements with the management.