MLC International Retentions: Cummins and Head to skip 2025 edition

The Australian duo of Travis Head and Pat Cummins are set to skip MLC 2025. Head played a stellar role in Washington Freedom's title run in the last edition of the league with 336 runs in 9 innings and was second on the overall run charts of that edition. Head had previously spoken publicly of his intentions to limit himself to two franchise leagues per calendar year until he is an active Test cricketer. Besides, Australia are scheduled to play a Test series in the West Indies which also explains Cummins' unavailability despite a multi-year contract with San Francisco Unicorns.

Freedom manages to retain Steven Smith but the extent of his availability is a matter of speculation given Australia's red ball commitments. Along with retaining the highest number of domestic players, Freedom has also retained the highest internationals. Aussies Glenn Maxwell and Jack Edwards, and New Zealand's Lockie Ferguson will all return to defend Freedom's title this year. Akeal Hossein and Andrew Tye were the other players released by Freedom along with Head.

Apart from captain Cummins, Unicorns have also been impacted by the unavailability of Josh Inglis, mainly due to the West Indies Test series. Haris Rauf will be the lone Pakistani retention for the Unicorns as well as the league. The retentions of Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matthew Short and Finn Allen will continue to form a formidable top order for the Unicorns.

MI New York have continued to disengage with Tim David at MLC as well after releasing him from their IPL and SA20 rosters. While David's fate was on expected lines, the surprise exclusions were Kagiso Rabada and MI franchise blue eyed boy Dewald Brevis, who played an integral role in MI Emirates title win earlier this month. However, MI will not remain short of glamour quotient with the retentions MI talisman Keiron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Rashid Khan and Trent Boult.

Much like their strategy with domestic retentions, Orcas intend to bring in some sweeping changes in their international roster by just retaining the South African duo of Ryan Rickleton and Henreich Klaasen. Quinton de Cock has been released after two seasons with the franchise. Orcas released 6 other foreigners including Michael Bracewell and Nandre Burger.

Faf du Plessis will be a month short of his 41st birthday when he steps out for the Texas Super Kings again in June this year. Du Plessis topped the tournament run charts last year by a fair margin and is expected to lead the Super Kings again. Fresh ODI retiree Marcus Stoinis and Devon Conway will don the yellow again. Much like Orcas, Super Kings currently have a thin foreign contingent after the releases of Mitchell Santner, Daryl Mitchell, Naveen Ul Haq and Aiden Markram.

Los Angeles Knight Riders have decided to bring in wholesale changes to their foreign contingent after failing to make it to the playoffs two years in a row. Knight Riders loyalists Sunil Narine and Andre Russell continue to form some of their core along with Spencer Johnson. Knight Riders have released Jason Roy out of his multi-year MLC contract that made head turns in the English game. David Miller joins him on the outgoing players list along with Alex Carey, Shakib Al Hasan and Josh Little.