IPL 2025: Will Rohit Sharma stay with MI? Rishabh Pant all set to leave Delhi?

Will M.S. Dhoni be seen in his familiar Chennai Super Kings shirt? What about Rohit Sharma being retained by Mumbai Indians? Or Rishabh Pant, who is apparently not happy with Delhi Capitals, putting himself up in the auction market?

Come Thursday (31 October) afternoon, one will get a clearer picture of the seismic changes that are going to affect the next cycle of IPL from 2025 season. Once the deadline for submission of the 10 teams’ retention list ends at 5 pm, the official broadcasters will air it – setting up the battlelines for the IPL mega auction – which will be held in the Middle East for the second straight year in a month’s time.

The retention deadline, which used to be a regulation affair in the previous years, has acquired a great deal of importance in view of the churn that the teams are expected to see in this auction. While Rohit looks set to be retained, there are question marks over the move of Pant and KL Rahul – the increase of the salary purse to Rs 120 crores for each team means there will be a number of players breaching the Rs 20 crore-mark.

How is the upcoming mega auction be any different from the previous editions? This is the sixth time it’s going to take place after 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022. The gap between the 2022 and the ensuing one, however, is the shortest in the league’s history and is an issue that had been brought up by team owners during a reportedly stormy meeting with the BCCI at their Mumbai headquarters in July earlier this year.

 The other contentious issue had been the number of retentions – with reigning champions Kolkata Knights Riders making a case for an increase from the existing four as the Gautam Gambhir mentored team had forged an unstoppable combination in the 2024 season. Teams can henceforth retain up to six players from their existing squad, either via direct retention or through Right To Match (RTM), which returns for this year’s mega auction after last being used in 2017. They can pick a maximum of five capped players and two uncapped players – which forces the KKR management in a serious dilemma on the issue of retaining their skipper Shreyas Iyer.

The IPL governing body has, meanwhile, not set a cap on the number of foreign players that can be retained, meaning all five capped and two uncapped players can be overseas players, however unlikely the case.

The RTM rule also comes with a slight modification this year – franchises that placed the highest bid at the auction for a player can make one last bid after said player’s previous team makes use of their RTM card. The franchise making use of RTM will then have to match the new bid before securing the player they had released into the auction pool in the first place – making it a win-win situation for the concerned player.

We take a look at five players who could be hogging the limelight:

Rohit Sharma: Will he, won’t he?

There had been a lot of questions around Rohit Sharma’s future ahead of the IPL 2025 with several media reports suggesting that the veteran, who was removed from captaincy last season, can leave Mumbai Indians. However, as the D-day nears, the buzz is that the franchise is all set to retain Rohit – and the latter may see sense in that as it will guarantee him a season fee of Rs 18 crore.

M.S. Dhoni: In uncapped avatar?

When the IPL governing council re-introduced the additional retention of an ‘uncapped’ player (with a salary cap of Rs 4 crores), there were no prizes for guessing that it was primarily aimed to create a window for the CSK icon. A few days back, MS Dhoni, now 43, spoke about keeping himself in the best possible shape to play cricket for the next few years. Any commitment from his side is good enough for the five-time champions to keep their former talismanic captain in the plans – albeit as an impact player.

Rishabh Pant: Enough of Delhi Capitals

 A one-franchise man since his IPL debut in 2016, the Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant recently hinted at leaving his team and putting himself up in the auction through a social media post. There are reasons to believe that the wicketkeeper-batter, whose comeback in competitive cricket earlier this year after the near-fatal car crash was a remarkable story of courage, is not happy with the functioning at the Capitals with a split management coming into play. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are believed to be one of the sides interested in breaking the bank for Pant.

KL Rahul: Time to leave LSG

It’s an open secret that Lucknow Super Giants are set to mutually part ways with skipper KL Rahul as the international batter has reportedly expressed his desire to leave the franchise. After leading the franchise to back-to-back IPL playoffs in 2022 and 2023, that too in their first two appearances, Rahul was unable to guide them to a top four finish last season. The writing was on the wall after team owner Sanjeev Goenka tore into him after a big defeat – which did not escape the broadcasters’ eyes.

Shreyas Iyer: No more a Knight?

A trophy-winning captain the previous season, that too after a gap of 10 years, should be a done deal for retention but one is not sure if Shreyas Iyer will stay with KKR for next three years. At 29 years, the in-form Shreyas is in the right space for any other franchise looking for a reliable captain and should he be released, the names of at least two franchises – RCB and Punjab Kings – are up in the air to go for broke for the KKR captain.