New Delhi, India: The eagerly awaited IPL 2025 mega auction is scheduled to take place on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This event marks the second consecutive year that the auction has been hosted abroad, with Dubai having previously hosted it in 2024.
The dates coincide with the third and fourth days of the first Test match between India and Australia in Perth, adding an additional layer of excitement to the cricketing calendar. The mega auction, which occurs every three years, is extended to two days instead of the customary one, attracting widespread attention from cricket enthusiasts around the globe. During this event, the ten IPL franchises will strategically select their squads for the upcoming three years (2025-27), making it one of the most-watched events in the sport.
On October 31, teams had until the deadline to finalize their player retention decisions from the previous year's squads. A total of 46 players were retained across the ten franchises. Sunrisers Hyderabad's wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen emerged as the most expensive retention at INR 23 crore. Following closely were Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Nicholas Pooran (Lucknow Super Giants), both retained for INR 21 crore. The highlight of the retention day was Mumbai Indians securing all their key Indian players--Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, and Tilak Varma--for a combined total of INR 75 crore.
According to ESPNcricinfo, each franchise is allocated a total purse of INR 120 crore to construct their squads. Following the retention, Punjab Kings possess the largest remaining budget at INR 110.5 crore, retaining only two uncapped players--Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh--for a total of INR 9.5 crore. Conversely, Rajasthan Royals have the smallest budget at INR 41 crore, retaining the maximum allowed six players, a strategy also adopted by Kolkata Knight Riders, who have INR 51 crore remaining to spend.
This year, teams were permitted to retain up to six players, with a cap of five being capped and up to two being uncapped. The retention strategy involved either outright retention prior to the auction or utilizing the Right-to-Match (RTM) options during the auction.
The RTM rule enables a franchise to match the highest bid for a player who was part of their previous year's squad. Should another franchise place the highest bid during the auction, the player's former team can match this bid to retain the player. If the original team matches the highest bid, the bidding team can then increase their bid, and the original team must once again match this new bid to retain the player.
Punjab Kings, retaining just two players, hold the most RTM options with four. Royal Challengers Bangalore, retaining three players, have three RTM options, while Delhi Capitals, with four retained players, have two. Five franchises--Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Lucknow Super Giants--each retained five players, thereby having one RTM option. Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders, retaining six players each, have no RTM options available.
Registration for the IPL 2025 Player Auction has concluded, with a grand total of 1,574 participants having registered. This encompasses 1,165 Indian players alongside 409 international players, all vying for a coveted spot in the esteemed T20 League.
The exhaustive roster of registered participants is as follows: 320 players are capped, 1,224 are uncapped, and 30 represent Associate Nations. The distribution among these categories is as follows: 48 capped Indian players, 272 capped international players, 152 uncapped Indian players who have previously participated in IPL seasons, 3 uncapped international players with prior IPL experience, 965 uncapped Indian players, and 104 uncapped international players.
Among the international players, Australia has the highest number of registrations with 76, followed by South Africa with 91, and England with 52. Other significant countries include New Zealand with 39, West Indies with 33, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka with 29 each, and the USA with 10 players. Additionally, players from Bangladesh (13), Ireland (9), Canada (4), Netherlands (12), Zimbabwe (8), Scotland (2), UAE (1), and Italy (1) have also registered.
Given that each of the ten IPL franchises is permitted to assemble a maximum squad of 25 players, a total of 204 slots are available at the IPL 2025 Player Auction. This event is anticipated to be fiercely competitive as teams strategize to build their squads for the forthcoming three years.
