Buttler not retained by Royals for 2025 IPL

England white-ball captain Jos Buttler has not been retained by Rajasthan Royals for the 2025 Indian Premier League season.

Buttler, 34, has been with Rajasthan since 2018 but they have opted not to keep him before the Mega Auction.

Teams are allowed to retain up to six players from 2024, including five international capped players.

No England players have been retained, meaning the likes of Phil Salt, Sam Curran - who commanded a then-IPL record £1.85m in 2023 - Liam Livingstone, Jonny Bairstow and Jofra Archer could be available in the auction.

Australia seamer Mitchell Starc, who became the IPL's most expensive player in the 2024 season when Kolkata Knight Riders paid 24.75 crore Indian rupees (£2.3m) for his services, has also not been retained.

The highest retention price is for South Africa wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen, who has been retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad for 23 crore Indian rupees (£2.1m).

Klaasen is just one of 11 overseas players retained, with others including Australia captain Pat Cummins and batter Travis Head (both Sunrisers Hyderabad), Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan (Gujarat Titans) and West Indies' Nicholas Pooran (Lucknow Super Giants) and Andre Russell (Kolkta Knight Riders).

Indian superstars Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma (both Mumbai Indians), Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) and Ravindra Jadeja (Chennai Super Kings) are among those to be kept.

Some of India's key players will enter the draft though, with KL Rahul (Lucknow Super Giants), Rishabh Pant (Delhi Capitals), Ravichandran Ashwin (Rajasthan Royals) and Mohammed Siraj (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) among those released.

Among the overseas players not to be retained are Australia's Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) and South Africa's Anrich Nortje (Delhi Capitals), David Miller (Gujarat Titans) and Quinton de Kock (Lucknow Super Giants).

MS Dhoni, 43, will play for Chennai Super Kings again after being signed as an uncapped player. A rule change means anyone who has not played international cricket for five years becomes uncapped.

Sides who have not utilised their six retentions are given Right-to-Match cards to use at the Mega Auction, which means some players could still be retained.

However, Buttler and Starc will not return to Royals or Knight Riders because they have kept six players.

Players will have to decide whether to enter the auction around their international commitments, because the IPL has introduced a two-year ban on players who pull out of the tournament without certain requirements being met.

The dates for the auction are yet to be confirmed, but it is expected to take place over two days in late November.

The schedule for the tournament itself is also unknown, but usually takes place in April and May.

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Matheesha Pathirana, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni.

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel.

Gujarat Titans: Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh.

Lucknow Super Giants: Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni.

Mumbai Indians: Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma.

Punjab Kings: Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh.

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Nitish Kumar Reddy.