The Punjab Kings are likely to retain only two uncapped players, batsmen Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh, from their IPL 2024 squad. They will enter the next mega auction with the biggest purse, likely over Rs 100 crore, and They will also have four right-to-match options that can be used to buy back their players.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that PBKS was also interested in retaining India fast bowler Arshdeep Singh, who was their second highest wicket-taker last season with 19 wickets. Some of the high-profile players not retained by PBKS ahead of the auction include Harshal Patel, Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone.
PBKS will lose at least INR 8 crore of its INR 120 crore purse for retaining two uncapped players. Shashank and Prabhsimran were their two highest scorers (354 and 334 runs respectively) in IPL 2024, where they finished ninth out of ten. However, both batsmen played starring roles in their season highlight, putting up a record chase of 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens.
PBKS have not qualified for the IPL playoffs since 2014 and have also made changes to their coaching setup in a bid to turn around their performance in 2025, bringing in Ricky Ponting as head coach.
October 31 is the deadline for all ten franchises to submit their lists of retained players to the IPL. Teams have been allowed to retain up to six players ahead of the mega auction ahead of the 2025 season, of which a maximum of five can be international internationals and two can be non-international players. While the IPL has set minimum deductions from the auction purse for each retained player: INR 18 million for the first player, INR 14 million for the second, INR 11 million for the third, INR 18 million for the fourth , INR 14 crore for the fifth, and INR 4 crore for an uncapped player – franchises are free to pay more or less than those amounts to their retained players.
