The BCCI rolled out the retention guidelines for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season last month, and now the ball is in the team’s court to make the tricky decisions.
Each of the 10 IPL franchises can retain up to six cricketers, through the retention and Right To Match (RTM) option. October 31 is the deadline for retentions ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.
All eyes are on Mumbai Indians (MI) as they sacked Rohit Sharma from captaincy leading up to the 2024 edition. India’s T20 World Cup-winning skipper was replaced by all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who was traded in from Gujarat Titans.
There have long been speculations that MI might release Rohit Sharma ahead of the grand auction, scheduled for next month.
Some reports have also claimed about Rohit’s potential move to RCB as a leader. But when the man himself was asked to make the move during a conversation with a fan, he was left in splits.
It all happened during the first Test between India and New Zealand at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The spectators asked Rohit which team he would want to play in the IPL next season.
The Indian captain, who was making his way past the sight screen to the Indian dressing room, looked up towards the fan in the stands and replied, "Where do you want?"
The fan retorted: "RCB mein ajao (Come to RCB)," leaving Rohit in splits.
Here’s the video:
Besides Rohit and Hardik, Mumbai Indians have Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav in their ranks. They will also look to retain the services of Ishan Kishan, Tim David among others.
The auction purse for the franchises has been set at INR 120 crore. 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.
