Before the Bids: IPL 2025 Auction

It's that time of the year, and even more interestingly, it's that time in the three-year cycles of IPL when teams go through tectonic shifts, courtesy - the mega auction - this time, for the IPL 2025. It is being held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on the 24th and 25th of November from 3:30 pm to 11 pm IST.

Just two months ago, there were discussions between franchises and the IPL Governing Council about whether a mega auction should still be held, but the BCCI and the Council decided to stick with it for now.

As the date reads 24th November, the first day of the auction, there have already been significant developments regarding the auction and the IPL for the next 3 years.

The auction purse has been increased to INR 120 Crores, retention and overseas player participation rules have been refined, Right-To-Match (RTM) has been reintroduced, and teams have settled their direct retentions. In a progressive move, the BCCI has also announced the dates for the next three IPL seasons, with the 2025 edition set to be played from March 14 to May 25.

So, what's in store this time at the auction?

As the teams look to build their squad for the next three years, they will have a total of INR 641.5 Cr. to spend and 577 players to choose from for a maximum of 204 slots to fill. Of those 577, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer will be the players of most interest. They are all listed in the Marquee sets.

Marquee Set 1: Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Jos Buttler, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Mitchell Starc.

Marquee Set 2: KL Rahul, Yuzvendra Chahal, Liam Livingstone, David Miller, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.

The marquee sets, two this time, come first in the auction order, followed by capped and uncapped players classified into their specialties, and then the accelerated auction of remaining players.

While the order in which players get drawn in the auction can affect the final price they are sold at, teams might have a huge chunk of their purse reserved for certain key players. This, along with the increased auction purse, may drive the auction prices to never seen before heights.

Another exciting element of this auction will be how teams utilize the RTM cards. Earlier, an RTM card allowed the teams to try and bring back a player from their previous squad directly by matching the highest bid. However, this time, the team with the highest bid will be allowed to raise the bid one more time with no upper limit. If the team that owned the player in the last edition still chooses to exercise the RTM, they will secure that player.

Here's a breakdown of each team's retentions, available RTMs, and remaining purses.

Teams, their retentions, available RTMs, and remaining purses:

Royal Challenger Bengaluru

Virat Kohli (21 Cr.), Rajat Patidar (11 Cr), Yash Dayal (5 Cr) - uncapped

RTMs Available: 3

Purse Remaining: 83 Cr.

Mumbai Indians

Jasprit Bumrah (18 Cr), Suryakumar Yadav (16.35 Cr), Hardik Pandya (16.35 Cr), Rohit Sharma (16.3 Cr), Tilak Varma (8 Cr)

RTMs Available: 1

Purse Remaining: 45 Cr.

Chennai Super Kings

Ruturaj Gaikwad (18 Cr), Ravindra Jadeja (18 Cr), Matheesha Pathirana (13 Cr), Shivam Dube (12 Cr), MS Dhoni (4 Cr) - uncapped

RTMs Available: 1

Purse Remaining: 55 Cr.

Rajasthan Royals

Sanju Samson (18 Cr), Yashasvi Jaiswal (18 Cr), Riyan Parag (14 Cr), Dhruv Jurel (14 Cr), Shimron Hetmyer (11 Cr), Sandeep Sharma (4 Cr) - uncapped

RTMs Available: 0

Purse Remaining: 41 Cr.

Gujarat Titans

Rashid Khan (18 Cr), Shubhman Gill (16.5 Cr), Sai Sudharsan (8.5 Cr), Rahul Tewatia (4 Cr) - uncapped, Shahrukh Khan (4 Cr) - uncapped

RTMs Available: 1

Purse Remaining: 69 Cr.

Lucknow Super Giants

Nicholas Pooran (21 Cr), Ravi Bishnoi (11 Cr), Mayak Yadav (11 Cr), Ayush Badoni (4 Cr) - uncapped, Mohsin Khan (4 Cr) - uncapped

RTMs Available: 1

Purse Remaining: 69 Cr.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Rinku Singh (13 Cr), Varun Chakaravarthy (12 Cr), Sunil Narine (12 Cr), Andre Russel (12 Cr), Harshit Rana (4 Cr), Ramandeep Singh (4 Cr) - uncapped

RTMs Available: 0

Purse Remaining: 51 Cr.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Heinrich Klassen (23 Cr), Pat Cummings (18 Cr), Abhishek Sharma (14 Cr), Travis Head (14 Cr), Nitish Reddy (6 Cr)

RTMs Available: 1

Purse Remaining: 45 Cr.

Delhi Capitals

Axar Patel (16.5 Cr), Kuldeep Yadav (13.25 Cr), Tristan Stubbs (10 Cr), Abhishek Porel (4 Cr) - uncapped

RTMs Available: 2

Purse Remaining: 73 Cr.

Punjab Kings

Shashank Singh (5.5 Cr) - uncapped, Prabhsimran Singh (4 Cr) - uncapped

RTMs Available: 4

Purse Remaining: 110.5 Cr.

Where to Watch?

The IPL 2025 auctions will be live on Star Sports Network and Jiocinema from 3:30 pm to 11 pm IST.