IPL 2025 Retention: Pant to DC? Rachin back to CSK? Top RTM candidates in upcoming mega auction

The Indian Premier League (IPL) retention deadline ended on Thursday evening. While some teams such as defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders and inaugural champions Rajasthan Royals opted to fill all six slots that were made available to them, there were those such as Punjab Kings that retained only two – both uncapped players.

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The retention deadline on Thursday also witnessed several franchises release their captains into the player pool ahead of the mega auction that will take place towards the end of this month. Those captains, including KKR’s Shreyas Iyer, should be among the most sought after players with several franchises reportedly hunting for new skippers.

Besides allowing franchises to make up to six retentions, the BCCI also brought back the Right To Match (RTM) rule, which allows franchises to match the highest bid that a player released from their squad receives in the auction, making it another form of retention.

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With the retention lists out, we take a look at some of the players teams with available RTM cards will be eyeing in the mega auction:

Punjab Kings (4 RTM slots)

By retaining just two players no Thursday – middle-order batter Shashank Singh and opener Prabhsimran Singh – PBKS not only have the highest purse heading into the mega auction (Rs 110.5 crore), they also have the highest number of RTM slots 4. With the purse that they have, they can easily afford to buy back skipper Sam Curran, pacers Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada as well as English all-rounder Liam Livingstone. Wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma will likely also be high on their RTM list.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (3 slots)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru have the second most RTM slots available after retaining just three players — Virat Kohli at Rs 21 crore and Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal for Rs 11 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively.

The three-time runners-up have a fairly large purse of Rs 83 crore and will be eyeing India pacer Mohammed Siraj, explosive English batter Will Jacks, Australian all-rounder Cameron Green among others. South Africa’s Faf du Plessis, who had captained since 2022, and Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell might not be high on that list given the former is 40 years old while the latter barely scored runs last season.

Having retained Dayal as their uncapped player, RCB will have the freedom to either use their RTM cards on three capped players or two capped and one uncapped player.

Delhi Capitals (2 slots)

DC have two RTM slots in hand after retaining Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and the uncapped Abhishek Porel. Having released skipper Rishabh Pant back into the auction pool, it remains to be seen whether they will be able to match his price in the auction given the huge demand that the India wicketkeeper-batter is likely to attract.

They do have Rs 73 crore left in their purse and could break their bank in order to bring Pant back into their fold. Alternatively, they could target Australian top-order batter Jake Fraser-McGurk, who had quite the explosive debut season earlier this year, scoring 330 runs at a staggering strike-rate of 234.04. South African speedster Anrich Nortje and Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh could be their other RTM candidates.

Chennai Super Kings (1 slot)

CSK have exactly one RTM slot left after retaining skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Matheesha Pathirana, Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni. With former skipper Dhoni being retained as an uncapped player, Chennai could use the lone RTM slot on either a capped or an uncapped player. Rachin Ravindra is likely to be their top capped target along with the likes of Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell while their top uncapped pick would be Tushar Deshpande and Sameer Rizvi.

Mumbai Indians (1 slot)

With just one uncapped RTM slot available after retaining their ‘Fab Four’ – Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav – along with Tilak Varma, MI are likely to bring middle-order batter Nehal Wadhera, whom they had bought in the 2022 mega auction, or promising pacers Anshul Kamboj and Akash Madhwal.

Gujarat Titans (1 slot)

GT have exactly one capped RTM slot left after retaining captain Shubman Gill and star leg-spinner Rashid Khan along with B Sai Sudharsan and the uncapped pair of Rahul Tewatia and M Shahrukh Khan. They are likely to use it on senior pacer Mohammed Shami or explosive middle-order batter David Miller.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (1 slot)

SRH have one uncapped RTM slot left after retaining skipper Pat Cummins as well as openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, explosive middle-order batter Heinrich Klaasen and seam-bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy. Middle-order batter Abdul Samad could be a top candidate for SRH to fill their lone RTM slot in the upcoming auction.

Lucknow Super Giants (1 slot)

LSG have one capped RTM slot left after retaining Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav and the uncapped duo of Mohsin Khan and Ayush Badoni, and Australian seam-bowling all-rounder Marcus Stoinis will likely be their top target in the auction.

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Lucknow could also look to bring spin-bowling all-rounder Krunal Pandya or wicketkeeper-opener Quinton de Kock back. It is highly unlikely though that they will use it on skipper KL Rahul, who appears to have parted ways with the franchise for good.