Which two capped players are retained in franchises using the Uncapped Player rule?

Two teams used the ‘uncapped player’ rule to retain senior Indian players for IPL 2025 for just INR 4 crore.

October 31st all 10 Indian Premier League (IPL) The franchises have revealed the list of remaining players ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has allowed each team to retain up to six players, with a maximum of five disabled players and a maximum of two uncapped players. These six players were allowed to be retained using any combination of retention options and Right to Match cards.

One of the interesting things mentioned in the IPL player retention rules was the return of the ‘unrestricted’ player rule.

The IPL has brought back a rule that was scrapped three years ago as it was never enforced. However, two franchises have now used this rule to their advantage to retain two senior Indian players (one of whom has officially retired) as uncapped players.

For the unversed, a player who has no cap becomes capped if he has played at least one international match for his country.

The IPL has brought back the rule that an Indian capped player can be kept in the non-player category if he has not played international cricket in the last five years preceding the year of the relevant season (i.e. 2025).

This rule is very beneficial for the franchises as they can retain their favorite Indian limited-overs player who has not played for India in the last five years for just INR 4 crore, which is the price for an uncapped cricketer.

Which Indian capped players will remain as uncapped players in IPL 2025?

Using the unlimited player rule, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) retained MS Dhoni and Rajasthan Royals (RR) retained Sandeep Sharma for just INR 4 crore.

Dhoni last played for India in July 2019, while 31-year-old Sandeep played his two T20Is in 2015.

Dhoni is 43 years old and IPL 2025 could be his last season. It was reported that CSK had approached the BCCI to bring back this rule, which was scrapped in 2021 as it was never used by anyone. Thanks to this, CSK managed to retain Dhoni for a much lesser amount than the INR 12 crore that Dhoni got last season.

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