The IPL retention deadline is fast approaching and the fans are waiting in anticipation to check which players their favourite franchises will be retaining. The deadline is October 31 as the franchises have to let go majority number of their players ahead of the mega auction later in November.
Ahead of the retention deadline, a report in news agency PTI has confirmed the name of players Gujarat Titans are set to retain ahead of the mega auction. As per the report, the Titans are set to retain their captain Shubman Gill, star spinner and death-overs batter Rashid Khan and top-order batter Sai Sudharsan ahead of the auctions.
It added that the uncapped duo of Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan are also expected to be retained by the 2022 champions. "Shubman, Rashid and Sai will be retained by the franchise," an IPL source said as quoted by the news agency.
Gill was made the captain last season after Hardik Pandya left the franchise for Mumbai Indians. Under Gill, the Titans finished eighth in the 10-team table and failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in their short history. The Titans won the IPL 2022 and were the runners-up to Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023, both under Hardik's captaincy.
Notably, Rashid and Sudharsan have also been associated with the franchise since 2022, the same as Gill. Rashid picked up 19, 27 and 10 wickets in the three seasons so far. He has also helped the Titans finish off games in the death overs.
Meanwhile, Sudharsan was highly impressive with the bat in the Titans off-season in 2024. He amassed 527 runs at an average of 47.91 including one century in the last season.
Notably, the franchise is expected to retain uncapped Tewati and Shahrukh Khan. Tewatia has been with the franchise since 2022, while Shahrukh was picked at the mini-auction ahead of IPL 2024. While these five players are likely to be retained, there is no name of speedster Mohammed Shami in the retention list as per the PTI report.
Shami has also been with GT since 2022 and has been a vital cog in their pace attack and success.
Every franchise can retain up to six players, via retention or Right to Match (RTM) ahead of the auctions. As far as the retention slabs go, franchises have to splurge out INR 18 crore for the first retention, INR 14 crore for the second, INR 11 for the third, INR 18 for the fourth and INR 14 for the fifth retention. An uncapped player can be retained at INR 4 crore. A franchise can splash more money than this if they want to.
