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South Africa`s star batsman Heinrich Klaasen surpassed Virat Kohli by becoming the most expensive player retained in the Indian Premier League`s history. Sunrisers Hyderabad reclaimed the services of Heinrich Klaasen for $2.73 million along with Australia`s Pat Cummins and Travis Head.
Heinrich Klaasen smashed 479 runs including four half-centuries with a strike rate of over 171 in the IPL 2024. Klaasen surpassed the previous $2.02 million paid by Royal Challengers Bengaluru to Kohli in 2017.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli kept his bond with RCB for $2.5 million in the cash-rich league. KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant are not retained by their respective franchises. They will go under the hammer during the IPL 2025 mega auction which is expected to be held next month.
Also Read: Will KL Rahul return to RCB? Know the players who were not retained by their franchises for IPL 2025
Kolkata Knight Riders bought the services of Australia`s Mitchell Starc for $2.98 million in December last year. Pant left Delhi Capitals after he led the team in this year`s IPL following his return to competitive cricket from a serious car crash in December 2022. Rahul was not among the list of players retained by Lucknow Super Giants, who kept West Indies` Nicholas Pooran for $2.5 million. Other top players on the auction table will be England`s Jos Buttler, who was not retained by Rajasthan Royals, and South African Faf du Plessis, out of Bengaluru.
IPL 2024 winning captain Shreyas Iyer was released by KKR, but the franchise held onto the West Indies duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. Five-time winners Chennai extended their association with 43-year-old MS Dhoni, who comes in as an uncapped player after he retired from international cricket in 2020.
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians retained their top names including skipper Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav. The 10-team IPL, which began in 2008, has transformed the global cricket economy and spawned other T20 league competitions around the world.
(With AFP Inputs)
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