IPL 2025 Auction Rules For 2025-27 Cycle, Teams Can Retain Upto Six Players

The IPL Governing Council revealed the auction rules for the 2025-27 cycle after a meeting with all ten franchises on Saturday 28th September in Bengaluru.

IPL 2025 Auction Rules For 2025-27 Cycle

IPL 2025 Auction Rules are –

• As per the new regulations, teams can now retain up to six players from their current squad, where the mix would be a maximum of five capped players (Indian/Overseas) and two uncapped players. They can do it via retention or using the RTM (Right to Match).

The other rules are –

• The Right to Match rule has been reinstated where a franchise will have a chance to buy back a player for the highest price placed by another franchise during the auction once the bidding process is over. This was used during the 2017 mega auction but was scrapped before the 2022 mega auction.
• If a team retains all five capped players and one uncapped player then they will have to spend INR 79 cr in only retention. The franchises have a deadline of 31st October 2024 to submit their retentions ahead of the mega auction.
• The auction purse for the 18th edition of the IPL has been increased to INR 120 cr from 100. The total salary cap now includes auction purse, performance pay, and match fees. In the previous season, the salary cap was 110 cr, in 2025, it will be 146 cr, followed by 151 and 157 cr in the next two years. The historic move of a match fee of INR 7.5 lacs per match has also been announced which means a player playing all 14 group games can earn an additional 1.05 cr along with his contracted amount.
• A capped Indian player will become uncapped if he has not played international cricket for India for the last five years and does not have a central contract. This will allow the likes of MS Dhoni to be retained by the franchises in the uncapped category.
• Any overseas player has to register for the mega auction and if he does not, he will be banned from participating in the next year’s auction.
• If an overseas player registers himself for the auction and makes himself unavailable after getting picked up then he will be restricted from playing and participating in the auction in the IPL for the next two years.
• The committee has decided to continue the impact player rule till the 2027 season despite some criticism from players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and other franchise owners. Their take was it would prohibit the game from developing all-rounders who are essential in international cricket. The controversial rule lets a team substitute a player during any innings of a game either with a bowler or a batter, as per their convenience.
• Now the IPL teams will be able to announce a replacement for an injured player till up to the 12th game, however, till the previous season, they had to seek it before the 7th game.
• The IPL GC has also reintroduced the player loan process and it can be used during the season only, But no team to date has utilized the feature.