The wait to know the names of players retained by their respective Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise ended on Thursday, which was the deadline (October 31) for the teams to make their decision. But while most of the big names will stay with their current team for IPL 2025, there were many notable absentees who will move to the auction pool.
Here’s a look at ten of those prominent players who now wait to know their fate:
Rishabh Pant
The star India wicketkeeper-batsman has not been retained by the Delhi Capitals, which will send him to the auction pool, ending his stint with the team since 2016. The 27-year-old Pant, who made a comeback to competitive cricket with IPL 2024 after a horrific car accident in December 2022, remains one of the most surprising and biggest names to not be retained.

KL Rahul
The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper has moved on from the franchise, ending his three-year association since LSG made its debut in 2022. According to a TOI source, LSG were ready to retain Rahul, but he decided to part ways because of “personal and professional reasons”. Rahul led LSG to playoffs twice and will be among the hot buys at the IPL auction.
Mitchell Starc
The 34-year-old veteran Australia pacer broke all previous records at the last IPL auction last year to fetch a bid of Rs 24.75 crore from Kolkata Knight Riders. However, that wasn’t reason enough for KKR to retain the left-arm fast bowler, who slowly came into his own after meagre returns initially in the last season, playing a role in the team’s title triumph with his 17 wickets.

Arshdeep Singh
The left-arm pacer is one of the most consistent performers in India’s T20I team lately and showed that at the T20 World Cup, where he ended as the joint highest wicket-taker with 17 wickets. However, Punjab Kings decided to not retain Arshdeep, which sends him to the auction pool. He took 19 wickets in the last IPL season to finish joint fourth in the list.
Shreyas Iyer
KKR’s decision to let go of their captain also comes as a surprise, especially after Iyer led the team to clinching the trophy in IPL 2024, winning 9 of their 14 games in the league stage. Besides appreciably leading the team, Iyer also scored 351 runs. It’s a setback of sorts for Iyer, as he was also left out of the list of BCCI’s contracted players earlier this year.

Ishan Kishan
Mumbai Indians used all the allowed retention slots for capped players, which could be one of the reasons for the big-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman missing out. MI retained Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma. IPL retention rules allow a franchise to retain a maximum of five capped players.
Jos Buttler
The England white-ball captain has delivered the big runs as an opener for Rajasthan Royals, including 359 runs in 11 matches in IPL 2024. However, it didn’t convince Rajasthan Royals enough to retain the big-hitter, sending him to the mega auction.

Glenn Maxwell
The Australian batting all-rounder failed to live up to his promise in the 2024 IPL season, spring just 52 runs in 9 innings, which left little chance for his retention by Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Mohammed Siraj
The Indian pacer was another high-profile omission from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s list of retained players and will now wait to learn about his fate in the auction. He took 15 wickets in 14 matches in the 2024 IPL season.
Mitchell Marsh
Australia’s T20I captain, whose all-round skills are tailor-made for the T20 format, has not been retained by Delhi Capitals. He played just four matches in the 2024 season and was ruled out because of a hamstring injury. He scored 61 runs and took just one wicket before making an early exit from the tournament.