IPL 2025 Auction: Possible Date, Retention Limit & Other Details of Next IPL Mega Auction

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Indian Premier League season 17 - IPL 2024 will open with defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) hosting Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on March 22.

While the 17th season is in progress, there is already news regarding the next edition as the IPL chairman has revealed an important update about the IPL 2025 Auction.

There has been gossip that the auction could be done away with more trade deals like football transfers set to replace the traditional way of a team buying a player. However, that rumour may have been put to bed after the chairman's latest update.

IPL chairman Arun Dhumal has confirmed that a mega auction will be held before next year's Indian Premier League - IPL 2025. During an interview with Sportstar, Dhumal confirmed that IPL 2025 will witness a mega auction.

When is the IPL 2025 Mega Auction taking place?

The mega auction for IPL 2025 could be held like a two-day event like IPL 2022 auction. The date of the auction could be sometime between December and February. The most possible date may be in the final two weeks of the year 2024 - December third or fourth week.

If it's a mega auction before IPL 2025, How many players can each team retain before the bidding date in the retention window?

The retention window will close just a month before the auction, sometime in November. Each team will have the opportunity to retain only 3 to 4 players like in the IPL 2022 mega auction, which saw a total of 204 players being sold for a whopping Rs 551 crore.

"We will have the mega auction for sure, where you get to choose three-four players and then you have a new team. That makes it more interesting and that format will continue," Dhumal told Sportstar.

Dhumal also hopes that the upcoming mega auction will introduce more new talent not only from India but also from other countries as he highlighted teams like Afghanistan have also benefited from such auctions.

"Hopefully, the mega auction will be as big and as good as we have had earlier given newer talents coming in not from India and other countries. Teams like Afghanistan have also benefited as they could showcase their talent," Dhumal added.

While the earlier reports suggested teams could retain only four players, a report from CricBuzz on April added that the franchise owners are likely to ask the BCCI to allow each team to be allowed upto eight retentions during the meeting on April 15.

IPL 2022 Retained Players List

In 2022, some teams had to let go big names with the same limit of retention allowed with Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders using their full quota of retentions.

Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals retained three players each, while Punjab Kings went for a whole sale change as they opted only to retain two players. Here is a look at the retention list from 2022:

• Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (Rs 16 cr), Axar Patel (Rs 12 cr), Prithvi Shaw (8 cr), Anrich Nortje (Rs 6 cr)
• Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (Rs 14 cr), Abdul Samad (Rs 4 cr), Umran Malik (Rs 4 cr)
• Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (Rs 15 cr), Glenn Maxwell (Rs 11 cr), Mohammed Siraj (Rs 7cr)
• Punjab Kings: Mayank Agarwal (Rs 12 cr), Arshdeep Singh (Rs 4 cr)
• Kolkata Knight Riders: Andre Russell (Rs 12 cr), Varun Chakravarthy (Rs 8 cr), Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 8 cr), Sunil Narine (Rs 6 cr)
• Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (Rs 14 cr), Jos Buttler (Rs 10 cr), Yashasvi Jaiswal (Rs 4cr)
• Chennai Super Kings: Ravindra Jadeja (Rs 16 cr), MS Dhoni (Rs 12 cr), Moeen Ali (Rs 8 cr), Ruturaj Gaikwad (Rs 6 cr)
• Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Rs 16 cr), Jasprit Bumrah (Rs 12 cr), Suryakumar Yadav (Rs 8 cr), Kieron Pollard (Rs 6 cr)

In 2022, two new teams arrived. So to level the playing field, the two new franchises were allowed to draft in three players each ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. Here is a look at the draft list:

• Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (Rs 15 crore), Rashid Khan (Rs 15 Crore), Shubman Gill (Rs 7 Crore)
• Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (Rs 15 Crore), Marcus Stoinis (Rs 11 Crore), Ravi Bishnoi (Rs 4 Crore)

There have been a few releases and trades ahead of the last auction in 2023. However, the ten teams could retain the some of their big names and most could be the ones they retained in 2022.

There is doubts over a few players featuring in the next edition in 2025 like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma among others. But there is every chance that they will play at least one more season after 2024 edition.