The IPL 2025 Mega Auction will set the tone for the next five years. Looking back, moments like the IPL Mega Auctions were crucial for teams like Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in sowing the seeds of their dynasties. The auction not only reshapes team rosters but also significantly impacts each franchise’s success in the upcoming seasons. Teams with larger budgets, or “purses,” have more flexibility in recruiting high-caliber players, allowing them to make strategic moves that could define their performance in the years to come.

However, just like salaried individuals, IPL 2025 teams must work within a fixed budget, with each team starting with INR 120 crores if they have no retained players. A limited budget means teams will need to strategize carefully when bidding for players, considering the right combination while factoring in the players they’ve already retained.

2025 IPL Mega Auction: How the budget works?

Before discussing each team’s purse for the 2025 IPL Mega Auction, it’s important to understand why some teams have a larger purse, while others must work with a smaller budget.

For those unfamiliar with IPL auction rules, it might seem like there’s a disparity or bias in how the budgets are set, but that’s not the case.

The IPL governing council has provided each team with a base budget of INR 120 crores heading into the auction. This budget is for the entire roster and represents the maximum amount only if a team enters the auction with a clean slate, meaning no retained players. If a team retains a player—say, for INR 10 crores—that amount is deducted from their budget, leaving them with INR 110 crores (120 – 10). This is why there’s a variation in the remaining budgets for teams heading into the auction.

Also Read: All about Salary Cap on Foreign Players ahead of IPL 2025 Auction

Players retained by every team ahead of 2025 IPL Mega Auction

Every team had some high-profile players on their roster, whom they had the right to retain. While teams did retain players, this came at a cost. As mentioned earlier, the cost of retaining players, which includes their salaries, is deducted from their total budget of INR 120 crores. Below is the list of players retained by each team ahead of the 2025 IPL Mega Auction.

Chennai Super Kings Retained Players

• MS Dhoni
• Matheesha Pathirana (foreign player)
• Ruturaj Gaikwad
• Ravindra Jadeja
• Shivam Dube

Delhi Capitals Retained Players

• Axar Patel
• Kuldeep Yadav
• Tristan Stubbs (foreign player)
• Abishek Porel

Gujarat Titans Retained Players

• Rashid Khan (foreign player)
• Shubman Gill
• B Sai Sudharsan
• Rahul Tewatia
• Shahrukh Khan

Kolkata Knight Riders Retained Players

• Sunil Narine (foreign player)
• Rinku Singh
• Varun Chakravarthy
• Andre Russell (foreign player)
• Ramandeep Singh
• Harshit Rana

Lucknow Super Giants Retained Players

• Nicholas Pooran (foreign player)
• Mayank Yadav
• Ravi Bishnoi
• Mohsin Khan
• Ayush Badoni

Mumbai Indians Retained Players

• Rohit Sharma
• Suryakumar Yadav
• Tilak Varma
• Hardik Pandya
• Jasprit Bumrah

Punjab Kings Retained Players

• Prabhsimran Singh
• Shashank Singh

Royal Challengers Bangalore Retained Players

• Virat Kohli
• Rajat Patidar
• Yash Dayal

Rajasthan Royals Retained Players

• Sanju Samson
• Yashasvi Jaiswal
• Riyan Parag
• Sandeep Sharma
• Shimron Hetmyer (foreign player)
• Dhruv Jurel

Sunrisers Hyderabad Retained Players

• Heinrich Klaasen (foreign player)
• Pat Cummins (foreign player)
• Abhishek Sharma
• Travis Head (foreign player)
• Nitish Kumar Reddy

Remaining budget of every team ahead of 2025 IPL Mega Auction

As mentioned earlier, the cost of retaining players reduces the total available budget by that same amount. Rajasthan Royals have the smallest budget available, as they retained players such as Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, and Dhruv Jurel, all of whom are part of India’s team setup in various formats.

Punjab Kings, on the other hand, have the largest purse available, having retained only two players, Shahrukh Khan and Prabhsimran Singh. It’s worth highlighting that PBKS are the only team with a remaining budget of over INR 100 crores. They can certainly make a strong impact on the proceedings at the 2025 IPL Auction.

Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad are the two other teams, besides Rajasthan Royals, with a budget of less than INR 50 crores.

Franchise	Retained Players	Purse Spent (INR)	Purse Available (INR)
CSK	5	65	55
DC	4	47	73
GT	5	51	69
KKR	6	69	51
LSG	5	51	69
MI	5	75	45
PBKS	2	9.5	110.5
RCB	3	37	83
RR	6	79	41
SRH	5	75	45

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