Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has named the possible retentions for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. Chopra has insisted on the names of four players but has not given place to Bhuvneshwar Kumar in this list, which has come as a big surprise for SRH.
Aakash Chopra, in a video on his YouTube channel, said that
SRH could retain Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen and Abhishek Sharma ahead of IPL 2025.
“These four players are very important for the team. The opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma performed brilliantly last season and Heinrich Klaasen batted brilliantly in the middle order. At the same time, captain Pat Cummins led the team to the final with his leadership ability.”
“They will retain Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen, and Abhishek Sharma. I think these four should be retained because you cannot let them go anywhere. They have a destructive team. Both left-handed openers come and hit sixes and then Heinrich Klaasen comes and destroys,” Chopra said.
Aakash Chopra emphasized that without these players, SRH’s team can be weak. “These players play an important role in every department of the team. Both left-handed openers and the batting of Heinrich Klaasen troubled the opposition teams.”
However, Chopra left out Bhuvneshwar Kumar from this list, who has been an important player for the last several years for SRH. Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the Purple Cap in 2016 and helped SRH win the IPL title in the same year. But in the last few years, his performance has not been as expected. He took only 11 wickets in 16 matches at an average of 48.45 and an economy rate of 9.35 in IPL 2024.
Despite Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s consistency and experience, Chopra reckoned there could be some changes in SRH’s retention strategy this time around. “Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s experience is undeniable, but last season’s stats and his performances can make it difficult. This time the process of auction and retention will be very interesting.”
Moreover, Chopra has also not included Aiden Markram in the list of retentions. “How many foreign players can be retained is still not clear. Maybe SRH will give priority to these four players.”
Considering the retention strategy in the IPL 2025 mega auction for SRH, Chopra has given his suggestions to keep the team strong. Now it will be interesting to see how many changes are made in the actual retention list of SRH and which players will come in the auction.
