Heinrich Klaasen has shattered records by earning the highest retention amount before a mega-auction. The aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman has been retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for a huge sum of Rs 23 crore. The Orange Army has rewarded Klaasen for his exploits in IPL 2024 by making their first-choice retention and paying him a huge sum.
Pat Cummins, who joined SRH for Rs 20.50 crore in the IPL 2024 mini-auction, will stay with the franchise for Rs 18 crore. He took over as the captain before the season and led SRH to the final. The 2016 IPL winners lost to Kolkata Knight Riders in the first qualifier and the final. Cummins looks set to continue as the captain of the Orange Army.
SRH have also retained Nitish Reddy for Rs 6 crore. The young all-rounder came into national contention following his success in IPL 2024. He has already made it to the Test squad as well.
Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma will also stay with SRH for a sum of Rs 14 crore each. The opening batsmen formed a solid partnership and gave SRH quick starts in IPL 2024. Abhishek slammed 484 runs with a strike-rate of 204.21 while Head scored 567 runs with a strike rate of 191.55.
They played a key role in SRH making it to the final of IPL 2024. Abhishek's success earned him his maiden India call-up and he made his debut against Zimbabwe. He is part of the squad for the South Africa tour. He played all three T20Is against Bangladesh.
Since SRH have retained five players before the mega-auction, they will have one Right to Match (RTM) card. They can use the RTM on an uncapped player. The franchises were allowed to retain two uncapped players for Rs 4 crore each but SRH decided against it.