IPL 2025 Retention Process: Franchises Prepare for Mega Auction

As the IPL 2025 mega-auction approaches, the ten franchises are set to announce their player retention decisions by the deadline of Thursday, October 31. This crucial step marks the beginning of significant changes in the league as it enters a new cycle.

The retention process is governed by specific rules, allowing each franchise to keep a maximum of six players. This can be done either by the retention deadline on October 31 or via the Right-To-Match (RTM) card during the mega auction.

Now let’s see some key retention rules to understand the strategic battle more accurately.
Teams can retain up to five capped players and two uncapped players within the six-player cap.
The financial brackets for capped players are set as follows:

Capped Player 1: ₹18 crore;
Capped Player 2: ₹14 crore;
Capped Player 3: ₹11 crore;
Capped Player 4: ₹18 crore.

All uncapped players can be retained for ₹4 crore.
There are no restrictions on the number of overseas players that can be retained.
Many teams are looking at a different strategy as they are planning not to retain any players and to enter the mega auction with six RTM cards and a budget of ₹120 crore. As anticipation builds for the IPL 2025 mega-auction, fans are eager to see and support how their favorite teams will shape their rosters through the retention process.

The deadline for franchises to finalize their retention is set for 5 PM IST on October 31, Thursday.

Fans can catch the IPL 2025 Retention live on Star Sports and Sports18, beginning at 4 PM IST on the same day and for digital platform viewers, the retention event will be streamed live on the JioCinema app and website, starting at 4:30 PM IST.