Ahead of the upcoming IPL Mega Auction 2025, every IPL has now announced their retained players list as the deadline of October 31st came to an end. In this process, the Royal Challengers Bangalore was among the latecomers as they announced their retained players list on the eve of 31st October. Virat Kohli, who was the most certain and obvious name in the RCB Retained Players 2025 list, is accompanied by Rajat Patidar and young uncapped pacer Yash Dayal. RCB decided to retain only these three players for a sum of 37 crore INR, leaving them with the second-largest purse of 83 crore in the mega auction.
RCB Retained Players 2025 List
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli and RCB have become each other’s identities in the IPL, as Virat hasn’t played for any other franchisee since the start of the league. Virat had been retained by the RCB for 15 crore INR in the last mega auction of 2022; since then, his salary hasn’t seen improvement. But now, before the IPL 2025 mega auction, RCB retained their best player with the highest salary for a retained Indian player: 21 crore INR. Only Henrich Klassen, who was retained by SRH for 23 crore INR, is getting more money than Virat in the IPL 2025 retained player list.
RCB knows that Virat is the best player to build a team around, as he was RCB’s best player in the 2024 edition. In the 2024 IPL, Virat scored 741 runs in 15 matches at an average of 61.75 with a century and five half-centuries. RCB is expecting Virat to continue his 2024 form, as they will try to get some big hitters and deadly bowlers as well to support him and keep RCB in the title hunt.
Rajat Patidar
The second player RCB retained in the 2025 IPL is Rajat Patidar; like Kohli, Patidar also started his IPL career with Royal Challengers Bangalore. In the 2021 IPL, RCB bought Rajat Patidar with the base price of 20 Lac INR, but Rajat proved with his game that he was worth more than this, as he maintained a 30-plus average in every IPL season he played for RCB, except for his first season, where he got a chance in just four matches. Realizing Patidar’s worth and his importance in the team, RCB made him their second retention choice ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. Rajat Patidar is retained by RCB for 11 crore INR, securing a 5400% hike in his IPL salary.
Yash Dayal
The third and last player that RCB retained in going to the 2025 IPL is left-arm pacer Yash Dayal. Yash Dayal was brought to the IPL limelight by the Gujarat Titans in the 2022 IPL auction, where they spent 3.2 crore INR to bring in this young pacer. This decision of Gujarat proved to be instrumental, as Dayal played a key role in GT’s IPL triumphant season with 11 wickets in 9 matches with a remarkable strike rate of 17.45. In 2024, RCB brought in Dayal for 5 crore INR, and Dayal justified his price tag totally by producing his best IPL season so far.
In the 2024 IPL, Yash Dayal was the leading wicket-taker for RCB, as he clinched 15 wickets in 14 matches at a strike rate of 20.07. Now, RCB has decided to make Dayal their leading bowler by retaining him for 5 crore INR, the same price at which they acquired him in the 2024 auction.
Royal Challengers Bangalore has spent a total of 37 crore INR in retaining these players, and now they left with 83 crore INR to go in the IPL 2025 mega auction. However, this is the second-largest purse a team will have in the upcoming mega auction, so it is expected that RCB will get the players they want and end their 17-year-long title drought.
