SRH to retain Travis Head and Nitish Reddy as well ahead of IPL mega auction

Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy are set to be retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad as their final two capped retained players ahead of the 2025 IPL auction. ESPNcricinfo has learned Head is likely to be be retained for INR 14 crore while Reddy is set to get INR 6 crore.

With these two signings, SRH will have completed their quota of five capped retained players before the auction, securing the core group that led them to the IPL 2024 final, and will lose INR 75 crore from their purse of INR 120 crore. ESPNcricinfo reported earlier SRH were set to retain Heinrich Klaasen (INR 23 crore), Pat Cummins (INR 18 crore) and Abhishek Sharma (14 crore). They can now use a right-to-match card to buy back only one of their uncapped players at the auction.

October 31 is also the deadline by which the ten franchises have to submit their list of retained players to the IPL. The IPL franchises have been allowed to retain up to six players ahead of the mega auction before the 2025 season, of which a maximum of five can be capped internationals and two can be uncapped. While the IPL has set minimum deductions from the auction purse for each player retained - INR 18 crore for the first player, INR 14 crore for the second, INR 11 crore for the third, INR 18 crore for the fourth, and INR 14 crore for the fifth - the franchises are free to pay more than those amounts to their retained players.

Cummins will continue to captain SRH after he, along with the coaching staff led by Daniel Vettori, led them to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

If Klaasen's price tag, which is INR 5 crore more than the IPL's slab of INR 18 crore for the first retained player, was a surprise, the amount agreed with Head is likely to raise further eyebrows.

Head had his breakthrough season in the IPL with SRH in 2024, smashing 567 runs at a strike rate of 191.55 at the top of the order. In 2024, he also became only the second T20 batter to score 1000-plus runs at a strike rate of more than 175 and average of more than 40 in a year.

While Head did not have an impact in the IPL final against Kolkata Knight Riders, he has a proven record of performing on big occasions - he scored a hundred against India in both the World Test Championship final in and the ODI World Cup final in 2023. His 137 in the ODI World Cup final in Ahmedabad played a key role in SRH buying him for INR 6.8 crore ($819,000 approximately then) at the IPL 2024 auction. And though his price tag has more than doubled, it is likely that he may have fetched a higher bid had he entered the auction.

Reddy, 21, has also had a huge increase in his value from the INR 20 lakh SRH paid for him in 2023. He was the Emerging Player of the Year in IPL 2024, for scoring 303 runs at a strike rate of 143 and taking three wickets with his seam bowling. He was then picked for India's T20I series in Zimbabwe but missed the tour because of injury. Reddy eventually made his international debut during the home T20Is against Bangladesh earlier in October. He was part of the reserves for the ongoing Test series against New Zealand and will travel to Australia as part of the India A squad to play two four-day games from October 31 as well as the India squad for the Border Gavaskar Trophy starting November 22.