Ashish Nehra reveals why Shami was released: He was part of GT's retention plan

IPL 2025 mega auction: Ashish Nehra revealed why Mohammed Shami was released by the franchise. Shami was sold for Rs 10 crore to SunRisers Hyderabad.

In Short

• Gujarat Titans did not retain or RTM Shami
• Mohammed Shami was sold to SunRisers Hyderabad
• The pacer got Rs 10 crore deal from SRH

Gujarat Titans' head coach Ashish Nehra opened up about the franchise not retaining star India pacer Mohammed Shami. The IPL 2025 mega auction witnessed Gujarat Titans cracking one of the best deals. However, they let go of their ace pacer Shami, who was acquired for Rs 10 crore by SunRisers Hyderabad. The Gujarat Titans had the option to Right to Match Shami, but they refused to exercise the card. Nehra revealed that Shami was part of their retention plans but they had already retained many key players. When it came to using RTM for Shami, the management felt Rs 10 crore a bit too much for Shami and hence GT could not get the speedster in their team, Nehra explained.

"Whatever he has done for GT and for India, I mean he was part of our retention (plans) also. But again, you see retention is that kind of a thing," said Nehra, a former India pacer. "Mohammed Shami, Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Sai Sudharsan -- every team has so many options. Then we had RTM also, that maybe we can use RTM (at the auction) and take him; but the kind of price he went (for)," Nehra told Jio Cinema.

"Shami's contribution will be memorable"

Nehra praised Shami for his contribution in the last two years for the Titans and admitted that certain strategies could not turn out the way one would want.

"It doesn't matter whatever strategy you have, when it comes to open auction, your strategy is not going to be successful all the time," he added.

"Definitely, whatever Mohammed Shami has done for GT and those three years will always be memorable."

Shami sold to SRH

The pacer was sold for 6.25 crore in the 2022 auction, and he has now been sold for more than that.
Kolkata Knight Riders started the bidding for Shami with Chennai Super Kings quickly coming into the fray. The bidding war was a quick one, and it went to 8.25 crores before Chennai decided to drop out.

However, Lucknow Super Giants, fresh off their Rishabh Pant record bidding, came into the fray for the Indian pacer. The bidding went until 9.75 crores before Lucknow decided to drop out. However, Hyderabad made it 10 crore before the RTM question was asked to Gujarat Titans.

KKR was out of the race as Hyderabad got their man for 10 crore as Gujarat decided not to exercise their RTM option. Shami was the first signing that SRH had made in the IPL 2025 Auction after retaining 5 players.