Sunrisers Hyderabad, reportedly, have finalised their list of retained players ahead of the mega auction for the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and are ready to pay Rs 23 crore to one of the players. They are the runners-up of the previous season having lost to Kolkata Knight Riders in the final and it seems that the franchise believes in continuity willing to retain the core of the team.
According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, SRH will retain Heinrich Klaasen as the first player ahead of the auction and will pay him a whopping amount of Rs 23 crore. For the unversed, the BCCI has set Rs 18 crore as the price for the first retention but the franchise is keen on retaining him for the massive price.
Moreover, SRH have also finalised to retain Pat Cummins and Abhishek Sharma as the second and third players for Rs 18 and 14 crore respectively. The report also adds that SRH are likely to firm up the retentions of Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy soon even as October 31 is the deadline set by the BCCI.
These five players were among the top performers for SRH during their memorable campaign in IPL 2024. Klaasen was the second-highest run-scorer for them as he amassed 479 runs in 15 innings at a strike rate of 171.07 while skipper Pat Cummins scalped 18 wickets. Abhishek Sharma, more often than not, provided the team with blazing starts smashing 484 runs at a strike rate of 204.21.
Nitish Kumar Reddy was the find of the season as he also won the Emerging Player of the Season award even as he has also made his debut for India in T20Is while winning a player of the match award as well. He scored 303 runs in 11 matches at a strike rate of 142.92 and also picked three wickets showcasing his all-round skills. Travis Head was another marauder with the bat throughout the season, opening the innings and scored 567 runs at a strike rate of 191.55.
Having almost finalised to retain these players, SRH will have to be careful at the mega auction as they will have to build the rest of the squad as well.
