Records tumbled at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction on Sunday as Lucknow Super Giants signed on wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant for a whopping Rs 27 crore and Punjab Kings splashed Rs 26.75 crore on star batter Shreyas Iyer.
All-rounder Venkatesh Iyer emerged the third-most expensive player at the auction with Kolkata Knight Riders picking him up for Rs 23.75 crore. The most expensive IPL player before this was Australia’s star bowler Mitchell Starc who was snapped up for Rs 24.75 crore for the 2024 edition of the tournament.
Sunday was the first day of the two-day mega auction for the 2025 IPL season being held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The ten teams can pick up players for the 204 remaining slots —134 Indians and 70 overseas — for the 2025 season and beyond and have a collective kitty of about Rs 641.5 crore.
The teams have Rs 120 crore to spend during the auction, after accounting for the money spent on retentions. Punjab Kings has the fattest purse at Rs 110.5 crore, while Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) with Rs 83 crore are the second-highest, followed by Delhi Capitals, at Rs 73 crore.
In all, 577 players — 367 Indian and 210 0verseas — have been short-listed from the thousand-plus that had entered the auction. Teams can sign a minimum of 18 and maximum of 25 players during the auction period. Among Indians, 48 are capped and the remaining are uncapped. While 199 capped overseas and 12 uncapped foreign players will go under the hammer over two days. Some of the other top bids included Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal who were recruited by Punjab Kings at Rs 18 crore each. K L Rahul was picked up by Delhi Capitals for Rs 14 crore.
South African speedster Kagiso Rabada went to Gujarat Titans for Rs 10.75 crore. Sunrisers Hyderabad secured India pacer Mohammed Shami for Rs 10 crore. In the past, cricketers Pat Cummins and Sam Curran from Australia and England each had got bids of Rs 20.50 crore and Rs 18.50 crore, respectively, during the IPL auctions for the 2024 and 2023 editions.