New Delhi: Gujarat Titans (GT) will be retaining their captain Shubman Gill ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega-auction and star spinner Rashid Khan along with left-handed batter Sai Sudharsan are also going to be retained by the franchise. The other two retained players are expected to be uncapped hitters, Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan, as per a report in PTI.
“Shubman, Rashid, and Sai will be retained by the franchise,” PTI quoted an IPL source as saying. Gill is being looked at as the next leader in the Indian cricket setup. He captained the Titans for the first time earlier this year as the team finished eighth out of the participating 10 teams. Titans were the winners of IPL 2022, their debut year, before finishing runners-up the next year, both under the leadership of Hardik Pandya.
Retaining Rashid is also on the line of Gujarat Titans as the 26-year-old bagged 19 wickets in his first season with the team (in 2022), before scalping 27 wickets in the season that followed. His form went downhill this year as he could just manage 10 wickets in 12 games at an average of 36.70. Also in the retention plans is Sai Sudharsan who had a breakout year amassing 527 runs in 12 games, inclusive of a century. For the national team, he has featured in three ODIs and a T20I.
Tewatia and Shahrukh
Uncapped players like Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia could be the other two retentions before the deadline hits on October 31. Shahrukh batted impressively in the season earlier this year as he held a strike rate of 169.33. It would be a bargain price for the franchise, bagging him at Rs 4 crore. Meanwhile, Tewatia, who can be termed an IPL veteran, has played close to 100 games in the cash-rich league and the Titans are looking to retain him as well. He batted with a strike rate of 145+ last season.
The mega-auction will likely take place overseas in the last week of November. The auction purse for the IPL 2025 auction has been increased to Rs 120 crore from the Rs 100 crore cap teams had during last year’s auction. The total salary cap will notably consist of an auction purse, incremental performance pay, and match fees. A match fee of Rs. 7.5 lakh per game has also been introduced ahead of the next season.
As far as the retentions are concerned, the teams can retain up to six players, via retention or right-to-match (RTM) from their existing squad, which is the highest in the history of the IPL.
