One of the gala events of the cricketing world – the Indian Premier League mega auction – will take centre stage in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
After months of backroom strategy and tough scouting, it all comes down to pure business as 10 franchises look to get the best possible squads for the 2025 season and beyond.
In all, 577 players comprising 367 Indians and 210 overseas will be trying their luck to fill the maximum of 204 slots (70 overseas) open for the next season. Among Indian players, 48 are capped and the rest are uncapped professionals while 197 capped overseas and 12 uncapped foreign players will be up for grabs.
This year, three Associate country players will also put their luck to the test. The auction is to begin with the first set of marquee players wherein Indian stars such as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer, all of whom led their respective teams last season but were not retained by their respective franchises, are up for grabs at a base price of Rs 2 crore.
Pant is expected to be one of the costliest players in the tournament's history and Delhi Capitals will benefit from the right-to-match card. The other marquee players in the fray include Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj.
At the same time, Mitchell Starc, who received the highest-ever bid at an IPL auction, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, David Miller and Kagiso Rabada are the five overseas players across two sets of marquee lists.
A total of 82 players (after the addition of Jofra Archer) have marked themselves under the top price bracket of Rs 2 crore and will hope to make the headline in the two-day mega event.
Among others, 27 players are in the Rs 1.5 crore, 18 in Rs 1.25 crore, 23 in Rs 1 crore, 92 in Rs 75 lakh, eight in Rs 50 lakh, five in Rs 40 lakh, and 320 are in with Rs 30 lakh price tag After bringing down the curtain to his glorious red-ball career nearly three weeks before turning 42, England veteran pacer James Anderson took everyone by surprise as he registered himself at a base price of Rs 1.25 crore in search of his first-ever IPL franchise.
In contrast, Bihar’s 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi will head into the auction as the youngest player for this edition. The southpaw has played five first-class matches for his state and two Youth Test matches for India Under-19s, scoring a century against Australia Under-19s last month.
Among the uncapped Indian players, all eyes would be on Ashutosh Sharma, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, and Mahipal Lomror. Ashutosh and Mahipal made big impacts with their attacking stroke-making for Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru last year, and the former has the added advantage of being a left-arm spinner.
Delhi batter Angkrish has a good chance of getting a contract for the second successive season after showing a glimpse of his talent for title-winner Kolkata Knight Riders. At just 19, the top-order batter has the potential to further hone his skills by sharing a dressing room with international stars and become an integral part of the franchise.
Angkrish's former teammate in KKR, Vaibhav Arora, is another such candidate to fly high in the auction after a stellar season including 11 wickets in 10 matches. He proved himself as a reliable pace-bowling option in the powerplay by hitting the hard-lengths with the new ball.
He is likely to be one of the hottest picks among franchises looking to add a domestic pacer to the squad. Slots and purse available for each franchise: Punjab Kings will have the maximum purse of Rs 110.5 crore to fill 23 spots in their squad after another disastrous season for the franchise.
Chennai Super Kings (Rs 55 crore), Gujarat Titans (Rs 69 crore), Lucknow Super Giants (Rs 69 crore), Mumbai Indians (Rs 45 crore) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (Rs 45 crore) will each have a maximum of 20 spots available to complete their squads.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Rs 83 crore) and Delhi Capitals (Rs 73 crore) will eye to add 22 and 21 players to their portfolios while Kolkata Knight Riders (Rs 51 crore) and Rajasthan Royals (Rs 41 crore) will have 19 slots available to frame their squads.
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