The other Indian players with the maximum base price of INR 2 crore are Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan, Ishan Kishan, Mukesh Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, T Natarajan, Devdutt Padikkal, Krunal Pandya, Harshal Patel. Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj and Umesh Yadav.
Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan, which went unsold in the last auction, were listed at a base price of INR 75 lakh.
Mitchell Starc, who became the most expensive player in IPL history when KKR bought him for Rs 24.50 crore in 2024, is back in the auction pool at a base price of Rs 2 crore. Jofra Archer is also listed for the same base price as he has not played in the IPL since 2023, when he appeared in just five games for Mumbai Indians due to injury issues.
Each franchise can form a squad of up to 25 players, meaning there are 204 spots available in the auction after 46 players were retained from last season’s ten teams.
Each team has a total purse of Rs 120 crore to build their teams, but after retention, the Punjab Kings have the largest remaining purse (Rs 110.5 crore) to spend in the mega auction, followed by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (83 crores). Delhi Capitals (INR 73 million), Gujarat Titans (INR 69 million), Lucknow Supergiants (INR 69 million), Chennai Super Kings (INR 55 million), Kolkata Knight Riders (INR 51 million) , Mumbai Indians (INR 45 million), Sunrisers Hyderabad (INR 45 million), Rajasthan Royals (INR 41 million).
This time, the IPL has allowed teams to retain up to six players, of which a maximum of five can be limited and a maximum of two can be uncapped. The six players can be held directly before the auction or can be bought back using Right-to-Match (RTM) options at the auction, or a combination of both.
If a player has been bought by another franchise in the mega auction, the franchise he was a part of in IPL 2024 can intervene 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 have another opportunity to increase the bid to whatever amount they want. In that case, the player’s former team will have to match the increased bid to buy back their player.
Having retained only two players, PBKS has the most RTM options (four) in the auction. RCB, who retained three players, have three, while Delhi Capitals, who retained four players, have two. Five teams (MI, Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, SRH and LSG) have retained five players each and have only one RTM option in the auction, while RR and KKR have no RTM options.
Of course, there is no limit to the number of players a franchise can buy back if they place the highest bids for them during regular bidding at the auction.
