3 best IPL 2025 retention combinations for DC ft. Rishabh Pant & Tristan Stubbs

A couple of weeks ago, Delhi Capitals (DC) co-owner Parth Jindal shed some light on the team's intentions ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction. Jindal listed out the players who were at the top of the side's retention list while also naming a couple of others they're interested in keeping.

However, things might not be as straightforward. Reports recently filtered in that the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) are willing to shell out close to ₹80 crore to retain five key players ahead of the auction, indicating that the franchises might be reluctant to risk losing their core.

With that in mind, the Capitals will need to carefully evaluate the pros and cons of their potential retention strategies. There are many factors at play, and things are anything but cut and dry.

On that note, here are the three best IPL 2025 retention combinations for DC.

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#3 Retain the entire core - Pant (18) + Axar (18) + Stubbs (14) + Fraser-McGurk (14) + Kuldeep (11) + Porel (4)

Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals - 2024 Indian Premier League - Source: Getty

The Capitals did not pay exorbitant amounts for most of the above players, but they managed to put together a more than decent core ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. And if they don't want to leave anything to chance and want to lock down their main players ahead of the event, they have every opportunity to do so.

DC could realistically retain five capped players and one uncapped name ahead of the auction. Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav are straightforward choices from the Indian department, as three key members of the country's T20I side.

Tristan Stubbs and Jake Fraser-McGurk were two of the franchise's most important players in IPL 2024. Given their age and sky-high potential, they would be obvious picks to be retained as well.

Abishek Porel was mightily impressive in IPL 2024 and has a lot of room to grow. As a left-hander who can bat across a variety of roles in the middle order, as well as a backup wicket-keeping option, he would be a steal at ₹4 crore.

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#2 Get bold with it - Pant (18) + Porel (4)

Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals - 2024 Indian Premier League - Source: Getty

Prices are not always as high as expected at an IPL mega auction. The likes of Axar, Kuldeep, Stubbs and Fraser-McGurk might not go for amounts as high as their retention slabs. If DC feel brave enough to take that risk, they could keep hold of only Pant and let the others into the pool, after which they could buy them back.

For obvious reasons, this would be a massive risk. But it would guarantee the Capitals the purse to build a strong pace attack while also securing a robust Indian batting core, two facets of a quality IPL squad that they did not enjoy during the last campaign.

DC are known to enjoy the benefits of a big purse at the auction, and if they want that, they could go down this admittedly dangerous route.

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#1 Retain just the essentials - Pant (18) + Axar (14) + Stubbs (11)

Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Capitals - IPL 2024 - Source: Getty

With a decent amount of leg-spinners likely to be available at the IPL 2025 auction, it might be worth it for DC to release Kuldeep. Fraser-McGurk is far from a complete T20 product, and despite his obvious potential and successful 2024 campaign, teams might not be interested in paying double-digit crore for his services.

The rest, however, are essentials. Pant, Axar and Stubbs form the backbone of the franchise and need to be retained at all costs. This would give DC enough flexibility at the auction since they would have a similar purse to the other 10 franchises and at least two RTM cards in their hands.