The list of 1574 players who have signed up for the IPL 2025 mega auction, which will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25, does not include Ben Stokes.
All of the well-known Indian players who were let go by their teams are on the lengthy list of registered players, which the IPL will whittle down after consulting with the teams. Along with R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, who were both released by the Rajasthan Royals, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer—captains of the Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants, and Kolkata Knight Riders, respectively—are listed at a base price of INR 2 crore.
After the Gujarat Titans failed to retain him, Mohammed Shami, who has not played cricket since the 2023 ODI World Cup final in November of last year due to a number of injuries, is also listed at a base price of INR 2 crore.
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 are the other Indian players whose base price is up to INR 2 crore.
At a base price of INR 75 lakh, Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan, who were unsold at the last auction, have registered.
In order to manage his workload and fitness, Stokes also chose not to play in the 2024 Indian Premier League. He had been out for two months due to a hamstring injury sustained during the Hundred earlier this year in August. This year’s revisions to the IPL rules state that an overseas player who does not register for the mega auction will not be permitted to register for the subsequent mini auction, unless their home board certifies that they are injured or have a medical condition. Because bids for well-known players are usually higher at mini-auctions than at mega-auctions, this change was made to deter players from targeting these events.
When KKR purchased Mitchell Starc for INR 24.50 crore in 2024, he became the most expensive player in IPL history. Now, he is back in the auction pool with a base price of INR 2 crore. Jofra Archer, who has not participated in the IPL since 2023, when he only made five appearances for the Mumbai Indians due to injury concerns, is also listed at the same base price.
James Anderson, a fast bowler for England who has not participated in the IPL or played in a T20 since 2014, has signed up for the auction with a base price of INR 1.25 crore. During this English summer, Anderson announced his retirement from international cricket and joined the England team as bowling coach.
Thomas Draca, an Italian player who competed in the Global T20 Canada from Brampton, is also on the lengthy list. More recently, MI Emirates selected the 24-year-old Draca for the next ILT20 season in the United Arab Emirates.
After 46 players were kept from the ten teams from the previous season, each franchise is allowed to assemble a squad of up to 25 players, meaning there will be 204 spots up for grabs at the auction.
Following the retention, Punjab Kings have the largest amount of money left (INR 110.5 crore) to spend at the mega auction. Following this, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (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) are the next most money.
This time around, the IPL has permitted teams to keep up to six players, of whom no more than two may be uncapped and no more than five may be capped. The six players can be bought back using Right-to-Match (RTM) options at the auction, retained outright prior to the auction, or a combination of both.
At the conclusion of the bidding process, the team that the player played for in the 2024 Indian Premier League may use the RTM option to buy back their player by matching the highest bid if the player was purchased by another team at the mega auction. The franchise that placed the winning bid will then have another chance to raise it to any amount they choose. The player’s former team will then have to match the higher bid in order to repurchase the player.
PBKS has the most RTM options (four) at the auction, despite only keeping two players. Delhi Capitals, who kept four players, have two, while RCB, who kept three, has three. While RR and KKR have no RTM options, five teams—MI, Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, SRH, and LSG—retained five players each and each had one RTM option at the auction.
Of course, if a team bids the highest price for a player during the auction’s regular bidding, they can buy back as many of the player as they want.
