Cricket PredictionsIPL 2025

IPL 2025: Players Sunrisers Hyderabad would look to retain ahead of the Mega Auction

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), a former one-time IPL champion came close to adding another title to their kitty last year but came up short in the final hurdle. They played a fearless brand of cricket throughout the seaosn with Pat Cummins and their juggernaut was stopped by KKR, the only team that could match dominance across all departments of the game.

With a splendid season behind them, Sunrisers will hope to make a good start to the fresh IPL cycle, which starts with player retention and then the mega auctions. The Hyderabad team must look to retain most of their match-winners from the last season and build a squad around them.

Pat Cummins

Coming into the side in the 2024 season as one of the costliest buys in IPL history, Pat Cummins made an impact on the SRH both as a skipper and player. The Aussie pacer repaid the faith by leading them from the front picking 18 wickets and scoring useful 136 runs down the order in 16 games. His efforts proved pivotal in the team reaching the IPL 2024 final and it would be a surprise if he isn’t one of six retentions made by SRH.

Heinrich Klaasen

One of the best T20 batters going around in the world today, Heinrich Klaasen is a luxury to have for any side and SRH would love to have him in their ranks in the next IPL cycle as well as one of their core players. Since making his debut for SRH in 2023, Klaasen has scored the most runs for the franchise (927 runs) at an incredible strike rate of 173.92 in 26 games.

Travis Head

Travis Head is one player whose stock is rapidly on the rise owing to his spell-bounding performances both for Australia and in the IPL for SRH. Bought ahead of the 2024 season, Head emerged as the team’s leading run-getter in the edition scoring 567 runs at an astounding strike rate of over 191 in 15 outings. SRH will be one team to benefit from the latest IPL retention rules that don’t put a cap on number of overseas players retained.

Abhishek Sharma

Head’s opening partner in crime, Abhishek Sharma could very well be the fourth player to be retained by SRH. He has been part of the franchise since 2019 scoring 1314 runs in 58 innings, but his watershed season came in 2024 when he hammered 484 runs with a staggering strike rate of 204.22 in 16 outings. This earned him a national call-up and by the looks of things, Abhishek will also be part of SRH in the coming season.

Nitish Reddy (RTM / Uncapped Retention)

Nitish Kumar Reddy was a massive addition to the SRH in the 2024 edition and emerged as one of their reliable middle-order batters in the season. Playing his first full season, he got a long rope in the team, which proved beneficial for the team. Used primarily as a batter, Nitish scored 303 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate of 142.92 with two match-winning half-centuries to his name. Though he only bowled 13 overs across seven innings picking 3 wickets, the youngster can be handy as a medium-pacer and thus can be a long-term prospect for the team.

He has been called to the national T20 team as a result of his performances and if does make his India debut before retention, SRH may very well use RTM on Nitish at the auctions.

Abdul Samad (Uncapped)

Yet to represent India, Abdul Samad has been a constant name for SRH since the 2020 edition and has played 50 games for them over the seasons. Though he remained largely inconsistent scoring just 577 runs at 19.23, Samad has always shown the potential to make it big. Hence, the SRH think tank could very well retain the 22-year-old as an uncapped player.

Check out the same list for other IPL teams here.