IPL 2025 retention: Rinku Singh, Mayank Yadav and others whose salaries jumped from lakhs to crores

The 10 franchises unveiled their retention lists on the Thursday deadline ahead of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction. Some teams such as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) chose to fill up all six retention slots on Thursday, leaving no room for Right To Match (RTM) retentions in the mega auction that takes place towards the end of this month.

Also Read |   IPL Retention 2025 Highlights: 10 teams to announce list of retained and released players today

Then there were the likes of Punjab Kings (PBKS) who enter the auction with the biggest purse after retaining just two uncapped players – Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh – signalling the franchise’s intent to go for a complete overhaul ahead of the 18th season of the world’s biggest T20 league.

There were also a number of players who earned a massive pay hike after being retained by their respective franchises. This especially holds true for those players, especially the uncapped ones, who had been acquired at their base price of Rs 20 lakh and are worth crores heading into IPL 2025.

Also Read | IPL 2025 retention: Most expensive players revealed as Heinrich Klaasen tops Virat Kohli

Here are some of the players with massive hikes after the IPL retention deadline:

Dhruv Jurel (Rajasthan Royals)

Wicketkeeper-batter Jurel has been the single biggest gainer in the last 24 hours after Rajasthan Royals named him as one of their six retentions by putting him in the Rs 14 crore category. Jurel had been bought at his base price of Rs 20 lakh in 2023 and was retained at the same price ahead of last year’s mini auction in Dubai.

Also Read | IPL 2025 Mega Auction: Franchise-wise purse and RTMs left for after retention deadline

Though the Uttar Pradesh keeper-batter is yet to score 200 or more runs in a single season, it’s his strike rate of 151.53 that makes him such an interesting prospect in the middle order. That, along with the fact that he has also been impressive at the international level since making his debut against England in February have contributed to him getting the biggest hike ahead of the mega auction.

Rinku Singh (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Defending champions KKR had a tough time retaining six players from a squad filled with match winners that had delivered the franchise its third IPL title – the first in a decade. The Knight Riders ended up releasing captain Shreyas Iyer and Australian speedster Mitchell Starc, whom they had bought for a record Rs 24.75 crore in the last auction, while retaining veteran West Indian all-rounders Andre Russell and Sunil Narine among others.

For Rinku Singh to emerge the top retention in such a star-studded side speaks volumes of his talent as well as the potential that the KKR team management sees in the middle-order batter. Rinku, who has had a meteoric rise ever since his starred in Kolkata’s famous victory over Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad last year, has been retained at Rs 18 crore – a huge jump from the Rs 55 lakh price tag at which he had been retained last year.

Matheesha Pathirana (Chennai Super Kings)

Sri Lanka’s Pathirana was the only frontline seamer featuring in five-time champions Chennai Super Kings’ retention list, in which former captain MS Dhoni has been retained as an ‘uncapped’ player at Rs 4 crore. From being retained at his base price of Rs 20 lakh last season, Pathirana was retained at Rs 13 crore by the ‘Yellow Army’ on Thursday. Pathirana, who has a slingy action similar to that of Sri Lankan pace legend Lasith Malinga, has had a couple of extraordinary seasons in which he has positioned himself as one of the best death bowlers across the league.

Mayank Yadav (Lucknow Super Giants)

Express pacer Mayank is among the hottest prospects in Indian cricket after a sensational IPL debut  earlier this year, in which he emerged the quickest bowler of the season by clocking speeds of up to 157 kmph.

Mayank had been retained at his base price of Rs 20 lakh last year but after an extraordinary debut along with the fact that he is now a capped player after receiving his maiden India cap in the Bangladesh T20Is have resulted in the speedster being retained by LSG for Rs 11 crore.

Rajat Patidar (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)

RCB retained only three players ahead of the mega auction and among them was Patidar at Rs 11 crore, a big jump from being retained at his base price of Rs 20 lakh last year. Not only has Patidar scored more than 300 runs in each of the last two seasons, it’s his strike rate of 158.85 that makes him such a red-hot prospect for the Royal Challengers. Patidar is also a capped player now, having made his India debut during the Test series against England earlier this year.