In the player retention that was taking place on January 20, there were some notable players who were released and retained. As per BCCI's retention policy, franchises are allowed to retain only four players and the teams are required to submit the final list by November 30. According to a report published in Indian Express, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals have almost finalized the list retained players. KL Rahul is likely to leave Punjab Kings, while some of the star Indian players will either be picked by the two new teams in the draft or will go straight into the auction. The likes of Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson are likely to be released by their respective teams.
CSK – MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Moeen Ali/ Sam Curran
DC – Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prtihvi Shaw and Andre Nortje.
MI – Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard, Ishan Kishan
KKR – Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer
RCB – Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell.
RR - Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler
SRH: Kane Willamson and Rashid Khan
PBKS - Mayank Agarwal and Ravi Bishnoi