IPL 2025 Retention: Will India’s cricket stars Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, who have captained the Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in the past few years, be available at next month’s IPL auction, along with KL Rahul, who led the Lucknow Super Giants till last season?

The suspense will lift at 5.30pm when all 10 franchises announce their retentions today.

Struggling to cope up with India’s maiden Test series defeat to New Zealand, the retentions will also serve as a distraction for India’s passionate fans.

While Rahul is a certainty in the auction as of now, there are indications that Pant and Iyer too could go into the auction pool, but things could well swing at the last minute.

According to a reliable source, CSK are set to retain skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (Rs 18 crore), Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana (Rs 14 crore), Mumbai big hitter Shivam Dube (Rs 11 crore), Ravindra Jadeja (Rs 18 crore) and the legendary MS Dhoni (Rs 4 crore), who will be treated as an uncapped player as he last played for India in the 2019 ODI World Cup.

According to sources, the Mumbai Indians have managed to retain all their India superstars in the lineup – allrounder Hardik Pandya, who captained them in the last season, India skipper Rohit Sharma, India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah and batsman Tilak Varma, which means that they are likely to spend around Rs 75 crore just on retaining their top players.

The final word on who will be the MI captain for IPL-2025 is still not decided.

There is a buzz that RCB could reinstate Virat Kohli as their captain.

Other than him, the only other player they may choose to retain is middle-order batter Rajat Patidar, who smashed 159 off just 102 balls for Madhya Pradesh against Haryana in the Ranji Trophy recently and did well for them in the last IPL.