The Indian Premier League 2025 is still more than six months away but after the key meeting between BCCI and all the franchise owners, some updates are coming regarding the structure of the next year’s mega-auction and rules around retention, right-to-match etc. It is still not clear what will be the final ruling by the board but most of the news agencies are reporting that most of the teams are supporting a bigger retention pool as they want to maintain their core players group which is a key factor to retain their worldwide fanbase.
Let’s look at the top four teams from last IPl and who could be the top picks for their retention list. Kolkata Knight Riders won the IPL 2024 by beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad whereas Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore were the other two teams in Play-offs.
KKR had a great IPL season and their 2024 squad can be called one of the most in-form team in any IPL season in the league’s history. As a result, there are almost 7-8 players in KKR ranks who are well-deserved candidates for retention based on their 2024 form. This list includes the experienced one’s like Sunil Narine and youngsters like Harshit Rana. Let’s look who can be the top three.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
As an outcome of the successful campaign, the KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir and batting coach Abhishek Nayar has left the franchise to join the National team as head coach and assistant coach respectively. The KKR team management will look to retain Shreyas Iyer to maintain their leadership group with Iyer and Chandrakant Pandit. Iyer was not the most successful KKR batter, but he still scored 351 runs with 2 fifties including an important knock during the chase in first Qualifier. His captaincy was spot on most of the time and he will look to build his legacy as KKR captain in years to come.
Phil Salt was a late addition to the KKR squad but was a revelation from day one. The wicket-keeper and opener started his KKR career with a fifty and scored 435 runs with an astonishing strike rate of 182. The aggressive starts from him and Narine was a key factor for KKR’s success. For the third retention spot, it should be a toss-up between two West Indian veterans who both are long servers for KKR. Both enjoyed great all-round season as Narine (488 runs, 17 wickets) and Andre Russell (222 runs, 19 wickets) both delivered and could turn any match with their all-round ability. Although, in 2024 Narine took all the limelight, Russell could be the preferred retention option for hitting ability at the death. Among other players Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy also will be key candidates for retention.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
Like the KKR, Sunrisers also will look to retain the core of their squad which helped them to reach the final after a disappointing IPL 2023. Although, they also have many star performers in the IPL 2024, the first two names in their retention list should be their two maverick openers Trevis Head and Abhishek Sharma. The duo scored more than 1000 runs in IPL 2024 with Head contributing 564 (Average 40.50, Strike rate 191.55) and Sharma scoring 484 runs (average 32.26, strike rate 204.21) and provided them blazing starts in matches after matches.
For the third retention spot, there are two worthy candidates in Pat Cummings, their captain in 2024 season and Heinrich Klaasen, their designated wicketkeeper. Cummins picked up 18 wickets including some key scalp during the season whereas Klaasen has scored 479 with four fifties and very often carried on the momentum set up by the openers. The other key Indian retention options include T Natarajan and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
See also: Duleep Trophy: Indian cricket stars to be in focus
Rajasthan Royals (RR)
For the Royals, the top three choice looks straight forward. Despite some brilliant overseas stars like Jos Buttler, Trent Boult and Rovman Powell, their top three retention choices are all Indian. This includes their captain and wicketkeeper Sanju Samson. Samson is a key player for the Royals at the top order. Samson had another successful season scoring 53 runs with an average nearing fifty and strike rate above 150. Overall Samson has scored nearly 4,500 runs over the last 12 seasons in IPL.
Along with Samson, the other two choices are two more young Indian batters in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag. Jaiswal is one of the most exciting young talents of the World cricket and already a start for Indian national team. The Royals management already showed their trust on him by retaining him before the 2022 mega-auction and after his performance in last two seasons it will be a no brainer for them to retain Jaiswal again. Parag has finally established himself in the Royals’ set up after many mediocre seasons but his 573 runs with an average above fifty and strike rate touching 150 was highest for Royals in the 2024 season and make a strong case for him to be retained.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
It may not be as straight forward for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Their captain Faf du Plessis is already forty and even if he comes back to IPL for few more seasons, he may not be part of their retention list. Their other veteran, Virat Kohli will be retained as team RCB without Kohli is unthinkable. Kohli again had a great season scoring 741 runs including a century and five hal-centuries and won the Orange Cap. Among the younger players, Rajat Patidar looks to be a potential retention candidate. The stylish middle-order batter played some important innings scoring 395 runs and can become the mainstay of the RCB battings in the yeas to come.
For the third retention spot there are two young overseas all-rounders Cameron Green and Will Jacks as both impressed with their all-round skill. Jacks may get the nod after his sensational innings against the Gujarat Titans. The other potential retention options for them could be Mohammed Siraj or any other young Indian bowlers along with the Australian great Glenn Maxwell, who remain a gamechanger despite having a pretty barren IPL 2024.
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