When is the IPL 2025 auction happening, and where?
The IPL 2025 action will take place on November 24 and 25, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It's being held overseas for only the second time - the 2024 auction was in Dubai. The exact start and end times for the auction is yet to be confirmed, so watch this space. This year, the IPL 2025 auction will clash with the third and fourth days of the Australia vs India Test in Perth.
Why is the IPL 2025 auction a 'mega auction'?
Every three years, the IPL franchises undergo a reset of sorts. They are allowed to retain only a small number of players - a maximum of six this time - and must rebuild their squads at the mega auction. In other years, in between mega auctions, teams can retain as many players as they like before a 'mini auction', which takes place over the course of one day. Mega auctions take two days because the number of players up for bidding is much higher than at mini auctions.
So how many players are there in the IPL 2025 auction?
As many as 1574 players registered for the IPL 2025 mega auction but that list will be pruned after consultations between the IPL and the franchises. The final list for the auction will be shorter and is yet to be released, but it will include big-ticket players from India and overseas.
Will there be a marquee set of players like in the previous two mega auctions in 2018 and 2022?
There is no confirmation on that at present, but the IPL is likely to kick off the forthcoming auction with a set of marquee players.
Who are the big names expected to be in the IPL 2025 auction?
There are plenty. Among the Indian players, there's Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, T Natarajan, Devdutt Padikkal, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, and many others.
The overseas list will include David Warner, Jos Buttler, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Faf du Plessis, Kagiso Rabada, David Miller, Devon Conway, Tim David, Rachin Ravindra, Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stoinis, Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone and many more.
How much money do teams have to form their squads at the IPL 2025 auction?
Each team has a total purse of INR 120 crore but some of that has already been spent on retaining players before the IPL 2025 auction. Punjab Kings have the biggest purse - INR 110.5 crore - to spend at the mega auction, followed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who have INR 83 crore, Delhi Capitals (INR 73 crore), Gujarat Titans (INR 69 crore), Lucknow Super Giants (INR 69 crore) Chennai Super Kings (INR 55 crore), Kolkata Knight Riders (INR 51 crore), Mumbai Indians (INR 45 crore), Sunrisers Hyderabad (INR 45 crore), and Rajasthan Royals (INR 41 crore).
And how many players can the teams buy at the IPL 2025 mega auction?
The size of each franchise's squad is a maximum of 25 (minimum size is 18) and there are ten teams - so a maximum of 250 players in total. Forty-six players have already been retained by the teams, leaving a maximum of 204 slots to fill during the IPL 2025 auction. Each squad can have a maximum of eight overseas players so there are 70 slots for overseas players at the auction.
CSK: 20 slots (7 overseas)
RCB: 22 slots (8 overseas)
SRH: 20 slots (5 overseas)
MI: 20 slots (8 overseas)
DC: 21 slots (7 overseas)
RR: 19 slots (7 overseas)
PBKS: 23 slots (8 overseas)
KKR: 19 slots (6 overseas)
GT: 20 slots (7 overseas)
LSG: 20 slots (7 overseas)
KL Rahul goes to the auction table, but how much will LSG miss his services?
Why do teams have varying number of slots to fill at the IPL 2025 auction?
That's because teams retained different numbers of players before the auction. While teams were allowed to keep a maximum of six (with a maximum of five capped and maximum of two uncapped players), PBKS, for example, retained only two players, while RR and KKR retained six.
Mumbai Indians
Players retained: Jasprit Bumrah (INR 18 crore), Suryakumar Yadav (INR 16.35 crore), Hardik Pandya (INR 16.35 crore), Rohit Sharma (INR 16.30 crore), Tilak Varma (INR 8 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: 1
Players eligible for RTM: One uncapped player
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Players retained: Heinrich Klaasen (INR 23 crore), Pat Cummins (INR 18 crore), Abhishek Sharma (INR 14 crore), Travis Head (INR 14 crore), Nitish Kumar Reddy (INR 6 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: 1
Players eligible for RTM: One uncapped player
Chennai Super Kings
Players retained: Ruturaj Gaikwad (INR 18 crore), Ravindra Jadeja (INR 18 crore), Matheesha Pathirana (INR 13 crore), Shivam Dube (INR 12 crore), MS Dhoni (INR 4 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: 1
Players eligible for RTM: One capped or uncapped player
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Players retained: Virat Kohli (INR 21 crore), Rajat Patidar (INR 11 crore), Yash Dayal (INR 5 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: 3
Players eligible for RTM: One uncapped player and two capped players, or three capped players
Delhi Capitals
Players retained: Axar Patel (INR 16.50 crore), Kuldeep Yadav (INR 13.25 crore), Tristan Stubbs (INR 10 crore), Abishek Porel (INR 4 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: 2
Players eligible for RTM: One uncapped player and one capped player, or two capped players
Kolkata Knight Riders
Players retained: Rinku Singh (INR 13 crore), Varun Chakravarthy (INR 12 crore), Sunil Narine (INR 12 crore), Andre Russell (INR 12 crore), Harshit Rana (INR 4 crore), Ramandeep Singh (INR 4 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: None
Players eligible for RTM: None
Rajasthan Royals
Players retained: Sanju Samson (INR 18 crore), Yashasvi Jaiswal (INR 18 crore), Riyan Parag (INR 14 crore), Dhruv Jurel (INR 14 crore), Shimron Hetmyer (INR 11 crore), Sandeep Sharma (INR 4 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: None
Players eligible for RTM: None
Gujarat Titans
Players retained: Rashid Khan (INR 18 crore), Shubman Gill (INR 16.50 crore), Sai Sudharsan (INR 8.50 crore), Rahul Tewatia (INR 4 crore), Shahrukh Khan (INR 4 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: One
Players eligible for RTM: One capped player
Lucknow Super Giants
Players retained: Nicholas Pooran (INR 21 crore), Ravi Bishnoi (INR 11 crore) Mayank Yadav (INR 11 crore), Mohsin Khan (INR 4 crore), Ayush Badoni (INR 4 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: 1
Players eligible for RTM: One capped player
Punjab Kings
Players retained: Shashank Singh (INR 5.5 crore), Prabhsimran Singh (INR 4 crore)
Right-to-match (RTM) options at auction: 4
Players eligible for RTM: Four capped players
What does this Right-to-Match option at the IPL 2025 auction mean?
The IPL teams were allowed to retain up to six players this time - of which a maximum of five can be capped and a maximum of two can be uncapped. The six could either be retained outright ahead of the auction, or can be bought back using Right-to-Match (RTM) options at the auction, or a combination of both.
So here's how the RTM options work: If a player has been bought by another franchise at the mega auction, the franchise that he was part of in IPL 2024 can step in at the end of the bidding process and buy back their player using the RTM option by matching the highest bid. After that, the franchise that made the winning bid will be given another opportunity to raise the bid to whatever amount they wish. In that case, the player's previous team will have to match the increased bid to buy back their player.
Having retained just two players, PBKS have the most RTM options (four) at the auction. RCB, who retained three players, have three, while Delhi Capitals, who retained four players, have two. Five teams - MI, CSK, GT, SRH and LSG - retained five players each and have just one RTM option at the auction, while RR and KKR have no RTM options.
There is of course no limit on the number of players a franchise can buy back if they place the highest bids for them during regular bidding at the auction.