The IPL 2025 retention saw the franchises breaking banks for certain players. The likes of Virat Kohli and Henrich Klaasen got the most out of it. Kohli was retained for Rs 21 crore by Royal Challengers Bengaluru but his record of fetching highest retention amount in IPL history was broken by Heinrich Klaasen. The wicketkeeper-batter was retained by SunRisers Hyderabad for a massive sum of Rs 23 crore. Klaasen thus became the costiest player ever retained in IPL. Before this, the record was held by Kohli with a retention amount of Rs 17 crore.
Have a look at five players with highest retention amount ahead of IPL 2025 –
- Heinrich Klaasen (SRH) – Rs 23 crore
- Virat Kohli (RCB) – Rs 21 crore
- Nicholas Pooran (LSG): Rs 21 crore
- Pat Cummins (SRH), Sanju Samson (RR), Yashasvi Jaiswal (RR), Rashid Khan (GT), Jasprit Bumrah (MI), Ruturaj Gaikwad (CSK), Ravindra Jadeja (CSK): Rs 18 crore each
Punjab Kings retained only two players and they are the franchise who paid the lowest amount for their first pick. PBKS roped in Shashank Singh for Rs 5.5 crore and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 4 crore.
Defending champions KKR retained Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and Varun Chakravarthy and it is interesting to note that their first-choice retention Rinku was picked for Rs 13 crore.
Each franchise carried a combined purse of Rs 120 crore for retention and the mega auction. A team could have made a maximum of six retentions with the Right To Match (RTM) card option included in it.
A team also had the option to release all of their players and enter the mega auction with six RTM cards, enabling them an option to buy back players at an unrestricted amount.
