5 IPL teams with the best retention choices
2. Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad comes second on the list in terms of the best retentions ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. The 2016 IPL champions have retained five marquee players such as Heinrich Klassen (INR 23 crore), Pat Cummins (INR 18 crore), Abhishek Sharma (INR 14 crore), Travis Head (INR 14 crore) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (INR 6 crore).
Overall, they have spent as many as INR 75 crores in retaining these players and they have INR 45 crores remaining in their wallet. South African international Klassen is the most expensive retained player in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s history.
The Sunrisers missed out on winning the title in the previous edition where they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders in the final. However, the 2024-runners up will look to make sure that they buy the right players at the auction such that they can make a bid for the second title.
3. Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders are the third most successful team in the history of the IPL. They have won as many as three titles so far The Knight Riders won the championship in the last edition by beating Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final.
The defending champions are ranked third on the list in terms of the best retentions ahead of the April 2025 auction. They have retained as many as six players, namely Rinku Singh (INR 13 crore), Varun Chakravarthy (INR 12 crore), Sunil Narine (INR 12 crore), Andre Russell (INR 12 crore), Harshit Rana (INR 4 crore) and Ramandeep Singh (INR 4 crore).
On the other hand, they let go of Mitchell Stark, who was the most expensive player in the tournament history when he was roped in by the franchise for Rs. 24.75 crore in the IPL 2024 auction. Surprisingly, KKR released their captain Shreyas Iyer from their squad who led them to glory in the IPL 2024 season.
