Who is the only player to be retained at a higher price than Virat Kohli’s for IPL 2025?

The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises unveiled the retentions ahead of the IPL 2025 auction on Thursday, October 31. Virat Kohli has been retained for INR 21 crore by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He has been retained as the second joint-costliest player alongside West Indies wicketkeeper-batter Nicholas Pooran by the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Kohli’s retention in the top slab for IPL 2025 comes amid reports that the senior batter will return as captain for the Bengaluru-based franchise. The 35-year-old had quit captaincy ahead of the 2022 edition of the tournament. As a captain, Kohli has led RCB to 66 wins in 143 games.

Notably, Kohli won the Orange Cap last season after scoring 741 runs in 15 matches, hitting one ton and five half-centuries. Overall, he has 8004 runs in 252 IPL matches, including eight tons and 55 fifties.

South Africa wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen has been retained by the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) as the costliest player among retained players for IPL 2025 for INR 23 crore.

Klaasen amassed 479 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 171.07, including four half-centuries last year. The 33-year-old slammed the most sixes by an overseas layer in 2024, hitting 38 maximums. He was only behind Abhishek Sharma (42 sixes).

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List of players retained ahead of IPL 2025

Mumbai Indians: Jasprit Bumrah (INR 18 crore), Suryakumar Yadav (INR 16.35 crore), Hardik Pandya (INR 16.35 crore), Rohit Sharma (INR 16.30 crore), Tilak Varma (INR 8 crore).

Punjab Kings: Shashank Singh (INR 5.5 crore), Prabhsimran Singh (INR 4 crore).

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (INR 18 crore), Matheesha Pathirana (INR 13 crore), Shivam Dube (INR 12 crore), Ravindra Jadeja (INR 18 crore), MS Dhoni (INR 4 crore).

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (INR 16.50 crore), Kuldeep Yadav (INR 13.25 crore), Tristan Stubbs (INR 10 crore), Abishek Porel (INR 4 crore).

Gujarat Titans: Rashid Khan (INR 18 crore), Shubman Gill (INR 16.50 crore), Sai Sudharsan (INR 8.50 crore), Rahul Tewatia (INR 4 crore), Shahrukh Khan (INR 4 crore).

Kolkata Knight Riders: Rinku Singh (INR 13 crore), Varun Chakravarthy (INR 12 crore), Sunil Narine (INR 12 crore), Andre Russell (INR 12 crore), Harshit Rana (INR 4 crore), Ramandeep Singh (INR 4 crore).

Lucknow Super Giants: Nicholas Pooran (INR 21 crore), Ravi Bishnoi (INR 11 crore) Mayank Yadav (INR 11 crore), Mohsin Khan (INR 4 crore), Ayush Badoni (INR 4 crore).

SunRisers Hyderabad: Heinrich Klaasen (INR 23 crore), Pat Cummins (INR 18 crore), Abhishek Sharma (INR 14 crore), Travis Head (INR 14 crore), Nitish Kumar Reddy (INR 6 crore).

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (INR 18 crore), Yashasvi Jaiswal (INR 18 crore), Riyan Parag (INR 14 crore), Dhruv Jurel (INR 14 crore), Shimron Hetmyer (INR 11 crore), Sandeep Sharma (INR 4 crore).

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli (INR 21 crore), Rajat Patidar (INR 11 crore), Yash Dayal (INR 5 crore).