Indians and batters dominate retentions, and a major captaincy refresh

Teams focus on Indian players

Retention split: Indians: 36, Overseas: 10

As might have been expected, the majority of players retained (78.26%) are Indians. Just two teams have retained more than one overseas player: Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have retained three, and Kolkata Knight Riders, who have retained two. Several teams have retained just one overseas player, while Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings have retained only Indian players.

Batters still dominate retentions

Retention split: Batters: 28, Allrounders: 7, Bowlers: 11

As has historically been the case, teams have focused on retaining batters over bowlers. Notably, Rajasthan Royals have just one bowler, Sandeep Sharma, among their six retentions. Similarly, SRH have just Pat Cummins as a frontline bowler. MI and Chennai Super Kings have slightly better balance since they each have a death bowler (Jasprit Bumrah and Matheesha Pathirana) and an allrounder (Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja). The two teams that have invested heavily in bowlers are Lucknow Super Giants, who have retained Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi and Mohsin Khan, and KKR, who have kept Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy in addition to allrounders Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.

Eight teams go for uncapped players

In 2022, just four teams had used the option of retaining an uncapped Indian player for INR 4 crore. This time around, eight of the ten teams have done so. Only MI and SRH have not retained an uncapped player. KKR, PBKS, GT and LSG have each retained two uncapped players, the maximum allowed. DC and RCB have retained one each, while CSK and RR have made use of the new rule of players who have not played international cricket for five years being classified as uncapped. CSK have retained MS Dhoni for INR 4 crore while RR have retained Sandeep Sharma for the same amount. A total of 12 uncapped Indian players have been retained.

Just three specialist spinners retained

In recent years, teams have been reluctant to spend big on spinners who don't also add value with the bat, and that trend continues. Among the 46 retentions, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi and Varun Chakravarthy are the only three retained purely for their spin bowling. Ravindra Jadeja, Rashid Khan, Axar Patel and Sunil Narine are four spin-bowling allrounders among the retentions. Among the experienced spinners going into the auction are Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Maheesh Theekshana and Rahul Chahar.

Five teams release their captains

LSG, DC, RCB, PBKS and defending champions KKR have all released their captains. While LSG might look at Nicholas Pooran as a leadership option and RCB may go back to Virat Kohli as captain, it is likely KKR, DC and PBKS will be looking for captains during the auction. This could increase the value of players with captaincy experience. Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Faf du Plessis, Aiden Markram, Steven Smith and Nitish Rana are among the auction-bound players with prior captaincy experience. Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, who have captained England, may also be in demand.

Captains sacrifice pay

In addition to the five captains released, three others have agreed to stay at their franchise as second retentions. Hardik Pandya will be paid INR 16.35 crore (less than Jasprit Bumrah), Shubman Gill INR 16.50 crore (less than Rashid Khan), and Pat Cummins INR 18 crore (less than Heinrich Klaasen). The only two captains who are their team's joint-top retentions are Ruturaj Gaikwad (INR 18 crore) and Sanju Samson (INR 18 crore).

Other marquee players have also agreed to lower price slabs to help their teams balance their purses. MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma are notable among them, but Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Axar Patel and Suryakumar Yadav have also agreed to amounts less than what they might have earned in the auction.

KKR and DC spend less than deductions

KKR and DC are the only teams who have chosen to pay their players less than the total amount they will have deducted from their purse. KKR have spent just INR 57 crore on their six retentions but will have INR 69 crore deducted from their purse since they have retained four capped players, which means a deduction of INR 61 crore, and two uncapped players, which means a deduction of INR 8 crore. Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell have all agreed to amounts less than the retention slabs set by the IPL. Delhi Capitals are also paying their capped players less than what they will be deducted for them. Axar Patel will be paid INR 16.50 crore instead of INR 18 crore, Kuldeep Yadav INR 13.25 crore instead of INR 14 crore, and Tristan Stubbs INR 10 crore instead of INR 11 crore.

All the other teams have balanced the amounts paid to their retained players so that none, except Punjab Kings, have gone over the minimum deduction. While SRH have paid Heinrich Klaasen INR 5 crore more than the maximum slab, they have saved that amount by paying Nitish Kumar Reddy INR 6 crore instead of INR 11 crore. Similarly, RCB and LSG have saved the extra INR 3 crores they are paying Nicholas Pooran and Virat Kohli by paying their other capped retentions less. Shubman Gill has agreed to be Gujarat Titans' second retention, at INR 16.50 crore, and the extra INR 2.50 crore spent there has been balanced by paying Sai Sudharsan INR 8.50 crore instead of INR 11 crore. CSK and MI have split their purse too, with Rohit Sharma being paid less than Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav.