IPL 2025 Retentions: Why Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders released Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer? Potential franchise who can target these players.
The retention for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 saw three captains being released from their squads for one reason or the other. Skipper KL Rahul was released by the Lucknow Super Giants after the owners were unhappy with the captain and the team’s performance last season. Kolkata Knight Riders could not retain their winning captain Shreyas Iyer who wanted to test his value in the auction, the team’s CEO Venky Mysore was quoted as saying. Rishabh Pant, who captained Delhi Capitals last season, also asked not to be retained as he was reportedly not “happy with the choice of new coaching staff”.
Nevertheless, these three players are set to laugh all their way to the bank in the IPL 2025 auction as a few franchises will go on a bidding war to get them. Also, their utility as a captain will be most sought after in the auction.
Franchises on the lookout of a captain
Currently, five franchises – Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Rajasthan Royals – have a settled captain. Two other franchises – Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore – need not look further than beyond their own players for a captaincy candidate.
Lucknow might hand over captaincy duty to Nicholas Pooran who was retained for a whopping INR 21 crore. Bengaluru might request their first retained player, Virat Kohli, to lead the team again. If not, they can use a right-to-match card to get their previous season’s captain Faf du Plessis to lead the team in IPL 2025.
However, these seven teams might still clash to get either of Pant, Rahul and Iyer as their batting skills would be high in demand. But due to the lower purse, they might avoid splurging on them.
Read More: Story behind Mumbai Indians' retention calls
Possible bidding wars
It leaves Punjab Kings, Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders to get either Pant, Rahul or Iyer and these may go on a bidding war as they have a higher purse to splurge on. Punjab will go to the extremes to get either of them as they have the highest purse (Rs 110.5 crore) to spend on players.
Punjab Kings have retained just two uncapped India players and hence, they not only need an inspiring leader but also a completely new squad in IPL 2025. KL Rahul has played with Punjab before and scored close to 600 runs in each of the four seasons he played with them from 2018 to 2021. Hence, Punjab might go on a bidding war to not only get a captain in Rahul but an opener-cum-keeper as well.
However, it won’t be a surprise if Punjab go for a kill to get Iyer who is coming to the auction after leading KKR to title last season. Punjab could also target Pant as the keeper-batter is in great form currently.
Delhi Capitals had to let go of captain Rishabh Pant and are looking for a suitable replacement. Iyer or Rahul would be the best bet for them. But Delhi would prefer Shreyas Iyer as their captain as the player has captained Delhi to the final of IPL 2020. With Rs 73 crore in the purse, they would go on a bidding war with other teams to get Iyer. If Capitals fail to get Iyer, their next target would be Rahul as captain-cum-opener.
It would have been tough for Kolkata to be unable to retain Iyer who led the team admirably in the previous season to their third title. But Iyer has plans to test his value in the auction and could see him bag in excess of Rs 20 crore.
Nevertheless, KKR have done well to retain the core of the team including Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, and Varun Chakravarthy. But none of the retained players fit the bill as captain. Hence, KKR would also be looking for a new captain in the auction.
Pant and Rahul would be the target for KKR in the auction as they are multi-dimensional players as well. Both can keep and bat, and captain as well. Rahul can open as well, and could form a good pair with Sunil Narine at the top. Hence, KKR would try their best to get either of them, but a purse of Rs 51 crore might just hinder their bargaining.
However, it does not mean Iyer, Rahul or Pant could not get bids from other teams. These three players can walk into any team with their individualistic skills as a player and not just as a captaincy material. CSK might target Pant as a keeper to succeed MS Dhoni. RCB might target Rahul to bring their former star back into the squad and probably even lead them. Iyer would also be in great demand and can get multiple bids from many teams in the pool. Hence, it would be interesting to see who wins the bidding war this time around for these three players.
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