MUMBAI: With limited purses at their disposal, some of the team managements moved cautiously while making their purchases on day two of the IPL2025 mega auction at the Abadi Al Johar Arena in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Royal Challengers Bengaluru had a piggy bank with Rs 30.65 crore; Mumbai Indians, Rs 26.1 crore; Punjab Kings, Rs 22.5 crore; Gujarat Titans, Rs 17.5 crore; Rajasthan Royals, Rs 17.35 crore; Chennai Super Kings; Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 14.85 crore; Delhi Capitals, Rs 13.8 crore; Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 10.5 crore and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 5.5 crore.
The day was a bit of a shocker with some rather good players not finding any takers in the first round of the auction, but getting picked up in the first or second round of the accelerated auction later in the day. Among the cricketers who were left out figured: Kane Williamson, Glenn Phillips, Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agrawal, Prithvi Shaw, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell,Shai Hope, K.S. Bharat, Alex Carey, Akeal Hosein, Adil Rashid, Keshav Maharaj, Fin Allen, Moen Ali, Umran Malik, Mustafizur Rahman, Umesh Yadav, Steve Smith, Sikandar Raza, Sarfaraz Khan, Kyle Mayers, Navdeep Saini, Lungi Ngidi Kwena Maphaka and Shivam Mavi. Some of these were once celebrated as stars and sure shots who were paid big bucks in previous IPLs.
It’s almost as if some of the teams were looking to take major risks and take on new talent, instead of recruiting players who have put up mixed performances. While others went about putting in big bucks to retain their squads of yesteryear.
Kolkata Knight Riders got the train moving by offering Rs 1.5 crore for West Indies skipper Rovman Powell, which was his base price. Delhi Capitals then got into the act by acquiring Faf du Plessis for Rs 2 crore, his base price. But the big story of the day was the Rs 1.1 crore which Rajasthan Royals shelled out for the 13 year old tyro and hard-hitter Vaibhav Suryavanshi, making him the youngest ever player to be picked up for the IPL.
Among the players who were picked up during the day included: Akash Deep (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 8 crore); Lockie Ferguson (Punjab Kings, Rs 2 crore); Deepak Chahar (Mumbai Indians, Rs 9.25 crore); Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rs 10.75 crore); Gerald Coetzee (Gujarat Titans, Rs 2.40 crore); Tushar Deshpande (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 6.50 crore); Josh Inglis (Punjab Kings, Rs 2.60 crore); Nitish Rana (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 4.20 crore); Ryan Rickelton (Mumbai Indians, Rs 1 crore); Washington Sundar (Gujarat Titans, Rs 3.20 crore); Krunal Pandya (Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rs 5.75 crore); Marco Jansen (Punjab Kings, Rs 7 crore); Sam Curran (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 2.40 crore); Allah Ghazanfar (Mumbai Indians, Rs 4.80 crore); Xavier Bartlett (Punjab Kings, Rs 80 lakh), Yuvraj Chaudhary (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 30 lakh); Pyla Avinash (Punjab Kings Rs 30 lakh); Eshan Malinga (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 1.2 crore); Devdutt Padikkal (Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rs 2 crore) ; Luvnith Sisodia (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 30 lakh); Shreyas Gopal (Chennai Super Kings; Rs 30 lakh); Ajinkya Rahane (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 2 crore); Glenn Phillips (Gujarat Titans, Rs 2 crore); Donovan Ferreira (Delhi Capitals, Rs 75 lakh); Anukul Roy (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 40 lakh); Vansh Bedi (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 55 lakh); Moeen Ali (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 2 crore); Umran Malik (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 75 lakh); Sachin Baby (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 30 lakh); Arshin Kulkarni (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 30 lakh); Matthew Breetzke (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 75 lakh); Kwena Maphaka (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 1.5 crore); Praveen Dubey (Punjab Kings, Rs 30 lakh); Manvanth Kumar (Delhi Capitals, Rs 30 lakh); Karim Janat (Gujarat Titans, Rs 75 lakh); Bevon Jacobs (Mumbai Indians, Rs 30 lakh); Tripurana Vijay (Delhi Capitals, Rs 30 lakh); Madhav Tiwari (Delhi Capitals, Rs 40 lakh); Kunal Rathore (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 30 lakh); Arjun Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians, Rs 30 lakh); Lizaad Williams (Mumbai Indians, Rs 75 lakh); Abhinandan Singh (Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rs 30 lakh); Kulwant Khejroliya, (Gujarat Titans, Rs 30 lakh); Ashok Sharma (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 30 lakh); Vignesh Puthur, (Mumbai Indians, Rs 30 lakh); Mohit Rathee (Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rs 30 lakh).
Below are some moments from the auction interspersed with the final squads of each of the teams and the prices that were paid for them. Happy reading and viewing! (pix courtesy screen grabs from JioCinema's stream of the auction)