In view of the IPL 2025 mega auctions which are expected to be held in the last week of November, the Rajasthan Royals have retained as many as six players from the IPL 2024 squad. The Jaipur-based franchise acquired Sanju Sampson and Yashasvi Jaiswal for Rs 18 crores each while two other players, Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag were retained at Rs 14 crores each and West Indies batter Shimron Hetmyer will earn Rs 11 crores. Not only that, Sandeep Sharma was bought back as an uncapped player for Rs 4 crores as well. Even though as many as six players were retained, RR released Jos Buttler, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Boult.
It was surprising for the fans that Hetmyer and Jurel were retained while players like Buttler, Boult, and Chahal were let go. However, head coach of RR, Rahul Dravid has now revealed the reasons as to why those players were retained in the team.
Dravid, who became part of the RR structure in June 2024 after a three-year term as India head coach, said a lot of decision making regarding the final list of retained players involved team captain Samson. It was not easy for the Keralite because her has been in the same dressing room as some of the players for several seasons.
“Sanju had a big role to play in these retentions. He faced a lot of difficulty, too. As a captain, he has built a lot of relationships with these players. We are very sad for the players we couldn’t retain, and Sanju has worked with these players for 5-6 years now,” Dravid was quoted by Hindustan Times after the retention list was submitted.
“He holds views which are very middle ground between these retentions. He has worked his brain around it and has plotted the merits and the demerits. Regarding this, he has conversed with me and others a lot, and it was not an easy call. There were many arguments, but at the end of the day, we like the team we have, and we made efforts to keep most of them,” he continues.
Chahal, who was purchased by the RR franchise in IPL 2022 mega auctions, is the all-time wicket-taker in the history of IPL, in the last 3 seasons he has taken over 60 wickets for RR and was the winner of the Purple Cap in IPL 2022. As for the latter, Buttler is placed within the ranks of the top two all-time run scorers for RR in the IPL.
