IPL 2025: Rating teams based on their retentions and releases

7. Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Rajasthan Royals made it to the playoffs in two out of the three seasons played after the last mega-auction. With such consistent returns, it was expected that they would retain most of their players. While they did retain six players, some of their picks were debatable.

Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, and Sandeep Sharma were retained for INR 18, 18, 14, 14, 11, and 4 crore, respectively. While captain Sanju and the explosive Yashasvi's retentions were no-brainers, Parag and Jurel being retained for INR 14 crore each seems contentious.

The Assam captain had a stellar season in 2024 after flattering to deceive over the last few years. He has gone on to make his India debut in the two white-ball formats. There is no doubt about his talent but the Royals could have used the RTM card to acquire his services for a lower sum of money at the auction. Meanwhile, Jurel has played just 27 IPL games and scored 347 runs at an average of 23.13 and a strike rate of 151.53. He has shown sparks of brilliance but retaining him for INR 14 crore is once again questionable.

Rajasthan released two IPL stalwarts in Jos Buttler and Yuzvendra Chahal ahead of the mega-auction. Both of them made some match-winning contributions last season and it was a huge surprise for many to not see them continuing with the Men in Pink.