Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, all franchises are set to undergo a major overhaul as the mega-auction will take place later this year.

Meanwhile, the BCCI rolled out the retention rules last week, as per which, each of the 10 IPL teams can retain up to six cricketers, with no restriction on nationality and including one uncapped cricketer. Besides, the Right to Match (RTM) card option has been reintroduced.

While the franchises have been directed to submit their list of retained players by October 31, Delhi Capitals (DC) co-owner Parth Jindal created quite a stir with his statement on Wednesday (October 2).

Speaking to the media, Jindal confirmed that wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is guaranteed to be retained by the Capitals.

“Yes, we definitely have to retain. We have some very good players in our team. The rules have just come out, so after discussing with GMR and our director of cricket, Sourav Ganguly, decisions will be made. Rishabh Pant will definitely be retained,” Jindal said in a video shared by IANS on social media platform X.

“We also have Axar Patel, who is excellent, Triston Stubbs, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Kuldeep Yadav, Abishek Porel, Mukesh Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed, all very good players in our team. We’ll see what happens in the auction. But first, as per the rule, we can retain six players. After discussions, we will proceed with the auction and see what happens,” he added.

The auction purse for the franchises has been set at INR 120 crore for IPL 2025. The first three retentions will see the auction purse being reduced by Rs 18 crore, Rs 14 crore and Rs 11 crore, respectively. However, the two other additional retentions will cost more than the third. The fourth and the fifth retentions will see a reduction of Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore, respectively.

It means a team will see its auction purse reduced by a whopping Rs 75 crore on five players, with only Rs 45 crore left in its kitty for the IPL auction.