Ahead of the highly anticipated 2025 mega auction, the 10 IPL teams have revealed their player retentions. In order to bolster their lineups, they made some surprising decisions regarding both releases and retentions. Four captains were boldly released by their respective teams: Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Faf du Plessis. This marked a change in leadership style and opened the door for a new core group of leaders. Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan who was Punjab Kings' captain have retired, so there will be a change in leadership in that camp also.
These releases show that teams are willing to rethink the dynamics of their teams, possibly concentrating on fresh international players or younger talent to further their goals. All eyes are now on the auction as the 2025 season draws near, as these well-known athletes may spark fierce bidding wars that could alter club lineups and rivalries throughout the competition.
Captains released by IPL teams
Shreyas Iyer
After three seasons together from 2022, KKR parted ways with Shreyas Iyer as their discussions came to a standstill. After defeating SunRisers Hyderabad in the May 26 final at MA Chidambaram Stadium, the 29-year-old guided KKR to their third IPL championship. Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, and uncapped players Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana have joined Russell on the retained list. The fact that KKR is one of just two teams to keep all six players means that they will not have any Right to Match (RTM) cards at the next auction.
Rishabh Pant
After lengthy negotiations failed to secure Rishabh Pant's commitment for an additional three years, the Delhi Capitals have formally moved on from him. We shall miss Pant, who started his IPL career with Delhi in 2016. However, Delhi kept uncapped player Abishek Porel, promising young South African batter Tristan Stubbs, and spin combo Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.
KL Rahul
KL Rahul, the former captain of LSG for their previous three seasons, was released after a lacklustre season. Rather, they made a significant investment in Nicholas Pooran, paying a whopping INR 21 crore to get the T20 standout.
Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis, who succeeded Virat Kohli as captain in the 2022 Indian Premier League and guided the team for three years as they made it to the playoffs twice, was let go by RCB due to age consideration. The top batter was kept for Rs 21 crore, and there were rumours that Kohli may rejoin the team as skipper for the 2025 Indian Premier League.
