IPL Mega Auction: LSG make Pant costliest IPL buy; Rs 468 cr spent on 72 players on day one
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Rishabh Pant became the costliest buy in IPL history when Lucknow Super Giants succeeded in securing his services with a record bid of Rs 27 crore on day one of the IPL 2025 Mega Auction in Jeddah on Sunday.
The previous record bid of Rs 24.75 crore that KKR shelled out for Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc ahead of IPL 2024 had been broken a few minutes earlier when Punjab Kings got Shreyas Iyer for Rs 26.75 crore.
KKR broke the bank to take back Venkatesh Iyer for Rs 23.75 crore, making the swashbuckling batter the third player to be sold for more than Rs 20 crore on the first of the two-day auction featuring 577 players and a total purse of Rs. 641.5 crore.
The Kings, who started the day with the largest purse of Rs 110.5 crore, unsurprisingly took home three of the top five buys, the others being pacer Arshdeep Singh and leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, both fetching Rs. 18 crore each.
English opener Jos Buttler, whom Rajasthan Royals chose not to retain, ended the first round of auction as the costliest overseas player, with Gujarat Titans spending Rs. 15.75 crore to sign him up.
Mumbai Indians, who remained without a successful bid for the first five hours, got going by winning the bid for New Zealand pacer Trent Boult for Rs 12.5 crore. Mumbai were largely silent on the day, spending a total of Rs 18.9 crore on four players, including three uncapped players, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz and Karn Sharma.
Punjab Kings were the most active franchise as they signed up 10 players, including Kerala's Vishnu Vinod. Overall, they spent Rs 83.8 crore on the day.
Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals too were quite busy on the day, signing up nine players each. K L Rahul was Delhi's costliest buy (Rs. 14 crore) while the Titans also secured Mohammad Siraj (Rs 12.25 cr) and Kagiso Rabada (Rs 10. 75 cr), besides Buttler.
Chennai Super Kings were on a nostalgia drive, as they ensured a homecoming for veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (Rs 9.75 cr) and Devon Conway (Rs 6.25 cr) before using the Right To Match (RTM) card for New Zealand all-rounder Rachin Ravindra (Rs 4 cr).
Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royals spent the majority of their available cash on three overseas players namely Jofra Archer (Rs. 12.5 cr), Wanindu Hasaranga (Rs. 5.25 cr) and Maheesh Theekshana (Rs. 4.40 cr).
Royal Challengers Bengaluru made surprising choices but appeared to have assembled a decent set of picks, including Josh Hazlewood (Rs. 12.5 cr), Phil Salt (Rs. 11.5 cr), Jitesh Sharma (Rs. 11 cr) and Liam Livingstone (Rs. 8.75 cr). Their neighbours, Sunrisers Hyderabad, splashed the cash on eight players, with wicketkeeper batter Ishan Kishan (Rs. 11.25 cr) and pacer Mohammad Shami (Rs. 10 cr) emerging as the top picks.
72 players, Rs 467.95 cr
After the first day of intense bidding, 72 players, including 24 non Indians, were sold for a total sum of Rs 467.95 crore.
At least 12 players, including a series of star names, went unsold on the day. Devdutt Padikkal, with a base price of Rs 2 crore, was the star among the unsold players. English wicketkeeper batter Jonny Bairstow and Aussie batter David Warner also remained unsold.