Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals are the only two teams that have used all six retentions ahead of IPL Auction 2025. The defending IPL champions held star West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell. However, they released their IPL 2024-winning captain Shreyas Iyer.
Having created a star-studded side en route to a dominant IPL 2024 title, retaining a maximum of six players was always going to be a difficult task for the Knight Riders.
Overseas stars Phil Salt and Mitchell Starc have been let go, while Indian regulars Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana and Vaibhav Arora have also not been retained.
KKR managed to retain their six players for a combined total of only Rs 57 crore. However, Rs 69 crore will be deducted from their auction budget, as that is the designated amount for four capped retentions and two uncapped retentions (18 + 14 + 11 + 18 + 4 + 4 = 69).
This leaves KKR with an auction purse of Rs 51 cr, having already sealed six players from their title-winning squad.
On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals (RR) let go of stalwart Jos Buttler, as well as star Indian spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin. Instead, RR chose to retain captain Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal for Rs 18 cr each. Having retained five capped players and one uncapped player, Rajasthan Royals will enter the IPL 2025 mega auction with the lowest purse of any franchise.
Since both KKR and RCB have retained all their six players before the mega auction, they will have no Right to Match (RTM) cards.
| NO. | Player Name | Type | Price (₹ Cr.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virat Kohli | Batter | 21.00 |
| 2 | Josh Hazlewood | Bowler | 12.50 |
| 3 | Phil Salt | Wicket-Keeper | 11.50 |
| 4 | Jitesh Sharma | Wicket-Keeper | 11.00 |
| 5 | Rajat Patidar | Batter | 11.00 |
| 6 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Bowler | 10.75 |
| 7 | Liam Livingstone | All-Rounder | 8.75 |
| 8 | Rasikh Dar | Bowler | 6.00 |
| 9 | Krunal Pandya | All-Rounder | 5.75 |
| 10 | Yash Dayal | Bowler | 5.00 |
| 11 | Tim David | All-Rounder | 3.00 |
| 12 | Suyash Sharma | Bowler | 2.60 |
| 13 | Jacob Bethell | All-Rounder | 2.60 |
| 14 | Devdutt Padikkal | Batter | 2.00 |
| 15 | Nuwan Thushara | Bowler | 1.60 |
| 16 | Romario Shepherd | All-Rounder | 1.50 |
| 17 | Lungi Ngidi | Bowler | 1.00 |
| 18 | Swapnil Singh | All-Rounder | 0.50 |
| 19 | Manoj Bhandage | All-Rounder | 0.30 |
| 20 | Abhinandan Singh | Bowler | 0.30 |
| 21 | Mohit Rathee | Bowler | 0.30 |
| 22 | Swastik Chikara | Batter | 0.30 |