Kohli for RCB; no Dhoni, Rohit: Four players each of the 10 teams might retain ahead of IPL 2025 mega auction

Every individual performance of players across all 10 teams is being looked through the lens of the IPL 2025 mega auction and who will be retained and who won't. So if there are a maximum of four retentions, here's who might be retained by each of the 10 teams after IPL 2024-

With IPL 2024 likely to be MS Dhoni's final season and looking at Chennai Super Kings' structure of the side, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Matheesha Pathirana and Shivam Dube are likely to be the retentions if there are maximum four allowed

Mumbai Indians replaced Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as their new captain and it looks highly difficult that he will be retained if there are just four retentions, especially with how things have panned out since the captaincy switch. Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Tim David might be those four

Things could get tricky for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) given that they will be in search of a captain at the mega auction. Virat Kohli and Will Jacks look like the top two retentions. Could RCB stick with Mohammed Siraj for one more season? Among all others, Mahipal Lomror has put his hand up too. A lot of confusion

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are not going to pull off any surprises either with Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine being their four retentions if that is indeed the maximum number

Delhi Capitals' retentions could be straightforward apart from one key decision between Axar Patel or Jake Fraser-McGurk. The Capitals have got their hands on probably the next big thing in T20 cricket and might go with him alongside Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav and Tristan Stubbs

Rajasthan Royals like the Kolkata Knight Riders have a pretty set line-up and structure and their retentions too are almost a given - Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yuzvendra Chahal and Riyan Parag

Punjab Kings surprisingly look like have one of the best settled first four unless they want to go for Sam Curran in place of one of Jitesh Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Liam Livingstone and Ashutosh Sharma

Gujarat Titans could mull on one of Rahul Tewatia or Noor Ahmad but the other three are almost a given - Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan and Sai Sudharsan. All of these are predicted and likely picks unless the player wants to go to the auction in search of a better salary and opportunity

Lucknow Super Giants could take a punt on one of Mayank Yadav or Mohsin Khan as the uncapped retention or both if they do away with Ravi Bishnoi with KL Rahul and Nicholas Pooran being the other two definite ones

Sunrisers Hyderabad too have a settled first quartet in captain Pat Cummins, who unexpectedly has been brilliant in his first stint as T20 captain. Nitish Kumar Reddy being a local and with age being by his side is another option with Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen being the final two