The highly anticipated IPL 2025 Mega Auction is set to take center stage in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this Sunday and Monday. With 1,574 players competing for spots in the world’s premier T20 league, the event promises intense bidding wars and strategic roster building by the ten franchises.
The auction will feature a vast pool of 1,165 Indian players and 409 overseas players representing 20 nations. The breakdown includes:
- Capped Players: 48 Indians, 272 internationals.
- Uncapped Players: 152 Indians with prior IPL experience, 965 Indians without IPL experience, 3 international players with IPL experience, and 104 internationals without prior IPL experience.
- Associate Nations: 30 players.
Top registrations come from cricketing powerhouses like:
- Australia: 76 players
- South Africa: 91 players
- England: 52 players
Other contributors include New Zealand (39), West Indies (33), Afghanistan and Sri Lanka (29 each), and the USA (10).
Each franchise can form a squad of up to 25 players, with a total of 204 slots available, including 70 reserved for overseas players. The player base price ranges from INR 30 lakh (320 players) to INR 2 crore, the highest bracket chosen by 81 players.
For the first time since 2018, marquee players are divided into two sets:
- Set 1 (Indian Players): Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Arshdeep Singh.
- Set 2 (Indian Players): KL Rahul, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
- Overseas Stars: Mitchell Starc, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada.
These marquee players include prominent captains like Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, who were released by franchises before the retention deadline.
Teams will deploy Right-to-Match (RTM) cards strategically to retain released players by matching the final bid. RTM cards distribution:
- No RTM cards: KKR, Rajasthan Royals.
- Four RTM cards: Punjab Kings.
- Three RTM cards: Royal Challengers Bangalore.
- Two RTM cards: Delhi Capitals.
- One RTM card: CSK, Gujarat Titans, Lucknow Super Giants, Mumbai Indians.
Franchises released 574 players ahead of the auction (366 Indian, 208 overseas), paving the way for a high-stakes auction to shape their squads for the next three seasons.