MLC 2025 International Retentions Leave Out Travis Head And Kagiso Rabada; Draft On This Date

The 2024 season of the Major League Cricket (MLC) was full of success, thanks to the international commitment from some of the marquee players, who turned up for their respective franchises after the end of the T20 World Cup 2024 in the United States of America (USA).

The same picture was expected to follow in the third season of the 20-over tournament. But, the international retentions of some of the franchises have grown speculations around that.

MLC franchises ignore Travis Head and Pat Cummins

The two aggressive batters, Travis Head and David Miller, along with South Africa’s top-class pacer, Kagiso Rabada, were among the big names to miss out on international retentions as the MLC franchises have named their side ahead of the draft on February 19.

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The defending champions, Washington Freedom, retained 15 players, the most of all the sides, but ignored Head. The southpaw was their joint-leading run-getter of the last season alongside captain Steven Smith with 336 runs in nine innings. They also let go of Akeal Hosein and Andre Tye among the overseas players.

San Franciso Unicorns, the runners-up of the previous season, kept their aggressive batters mostly for the new season, including Finn Allen and Jake Fraser-McGurk. But they parted ways with Pat Cummins, Matt Henry, and Josh Inglis.

A lot of Australian players will not feature in the upcoming season due to their Test and T20I tours to the Caribbean during the period.

Seattle Orcas has retained only seven players from the last season, the least among the six franchises. The only two overseas players of their camp from the previous edition will be South Africa’s Heinrich Klassen and Ryan Rickelton, who have enjoyed a successful run in international cricket since MLC 2025.

MI New York leaves out premier South African pacers for MLC 2025

The LA Knight Riders have also gone through a similar condition, where they have retained only three overseas players, including the two experienced members of the side in all leagues, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.

Faf du Plessis and Devon Conway will again pair up at the opening position for the Texas Super Kings, as they did in the last MLC season and the recent SA20 for the Johannesburg Super Kings. Even though they have kept Marcus Stoinis and Noor Ahmed, New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner and Sri Lanka’s Matheesha Pathirana are among the releases.

MI New York, undoubtedly, kept Rashid Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Trent Boult, and Kieron Pollard for the new edition but left out Tim David and the pace duo of the Rainbow Nation, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje.

List of retained players for MLC 2025

LA Knight Riders: Ali Khan, Adithya Ganesh, Unmukt Chand, Nitish Kumar, Corne Dry, Saif Badar, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Matthew Tromp, Spencer Johnson, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine

MI New York: Ehsan Adil, Nosthush Kenjige, Monank Patel, Heath Richards, Rushil Ugarkar, Sunny Patel, Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult

San Francisco Unicorns: Corey Anderson, Hassan Khan, Liam Plunkett, Carmi Le Roux, Brody Couch, Karima Gore, Juanoy Drysdale, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Haris Rauf, Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matthew Short.

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Seattle Orcas: Harmeet Singh, Cameron Gannon, Ali Sheikh, Ayan Desai, Aaron Jones, Heinrich Klaasen, Ryan Rickelton

Texas Super Kings: Joshua Tromp, Calvin Savage, Milind Kumar, Mohammad Mohsin, Zia-ul-Haq, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Faf du Plessis, Devon Conway, Noor Ahmad, Marcus Stoinis

Washington Freedom: Andries Gous, Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ian Holland, Amila Aponso, Justin Dill, Lahiru Milantha, Yasir Mohammad, Marco Jansen, Glenn Maxwell, Lockie Ferguson, Rachin Ravindra, Steven Smith, Jack Edwards