Top players like Rishabh Pant, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav and Shreyas Iyer are set to be available in the IPL 2025 mega auction next month.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction is set to take place next month on November 25 and 26 and the 10 franchises will have the opportunity to grab top names like wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, Team India bowlers Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav. Apart from them, two current IPL captains could also be up for grabs due to different reasons.
The two captains are – defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Shreyas Iyer and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) leader KL Rahul. It is believed that the new regulations from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) related to the team purse and IPL retentions coupled with the auction rules are the reasons behind these top cricketers choosing to try their luck in the mega auction.
According to a report in the Hindu newspaper, the IPL governing council have changed the previous rule of reducing the ‘lesser amount’ if a player’s retention price exceeds the designated price for the slot. This year, if the amount is ‘equal to or greater than the designated price’, the ‘higher of the two’ amounts will be deducted from the team’s purse.
🚨 Good News 🤩
Shreyas Iyer will leave KKR and enter the 2025 mega auction.
A few quick fire innings before the auction and he will break every existing record of IPL auction. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GfYG0dqSR9
— Harsh (@hrathod__) October 22, 2024
Before IPL 2022 auction, the highest player retention bracket was Rs 15 crore for the teams but Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were retained for Rs 17 crore and Rs 16 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) respectively but only Rs 15 crore was reduced that year from the respective team’s purse.
This time around, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are set to retain Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins and Abhishek Sharma for Rs 23 crore, Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore respectively. As a result, instead of Rs 43 crore (value of three retention slots), a total amount of Rs 55 crore will be deducted from SRH’s total purse of Rs 120 crore.
This coupled with the fact that additional bid has been offered to the highest bidder if the Right to Match (RTM) card means that top cricketers believe they can get a lot more value by going into the mega auction pool.
That’s the reason why former Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant, chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, Punjab Kings pacer Arshdeep Singh and KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer are all set to enter the IPL mega auction pool.
For KL Rahul, the reason is different as the Sanjiv Goenka-owned LSG team are not keen on retaining he Karnataka batter for the IPL 2025 season and are looking at possibly West Indies star Nicholas Pooran as their top player instead.
Six-time IPL champions MI, meanwhile, are set to retain Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, which will make a massive dent to their auction purse.