Who outrivalled Virat Kohli to become most expensive retained player in IPL history?

Who outrivalled Virat Kohli to become most expensive retained player in IPL history? (Source – BCCI/IPL)

The cricket fever is already at its peak with the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) franchises having finalised and released the list of final retained players. Notably, some time back, the governing council of the tournament laid out new rules and regulations in place for retaining and shaping up teams for the next season.

As a result, several top players were not retained in what was deemed as a baffling move by the fans and the cricket experts alike. While there were some surprising retentions made in the form of young players who have shown their skills in the past season. Hence the gusto of India’s biggest cricket carnival was back, but not without the star player Virat Kohli making the headlines.

The renowned Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) was on the verge of becoming the most expensive retained player ahead of the mega IPL 2025 auctions. However, the franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) had other ideas and broke the bank to retain one of the most exciting and big-hitting players. Notably, on Thursday, October 31, every IPL franchise came up with their strategy and South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen stole the show by surpassing Kohli to become the most expensive retained player in IPL history.

While Kohli fetched INR 21 crores under his belt. In totality, most household names were retained for INR 18 crores. Fascinatingly, some franchises came up with their own maths unlike the format provided by the governing council which was the formula of – INR 18, 14, 11, 18 and 14 crores, respectively, which was to be used by the franchises as it sums up to net 75 crore budget. Besides, the upcoming IPL 2025 mega auctions will be held in the last week of November.

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Top players retained for IPL 2025