The event will clash with the third and fourth days of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth
The IPL 2025 mega auction will be held on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is being hosted overseas for the second successive year – 2024 was in Dubai – and will coincide with the third and fourth days of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth.
One of cricket’s most watched events, the super auction, which happens every three years, is held over two days rather than one, and it’s when the ten IPL teams assemble their teams for the upcoming three-year (2025–27) season.
By the deadline of November 4, 1574 players (1165 Indian and 409 foreign) had signed up for the auction, which would take place in the Abady Al Johar Arena (also called Benchmark Arena), according to the BCCI. In addition to the Full Member Countries (with the exception of Pakistan), they include nations including Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Scotland, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. Up to 25 players can be assembled by each club, meaning that 204 spots will be up for grabs in the auction following the retention.
A total of 46 players from the ten franchises were kept after teams had until October 31 to decide which players from their 2024 squads they would keep. Heinrich Klaasen, a batsman and wicketkeeper for Sunrisers Hyderabad, was the most costly retention at INR 23 crore, followed by Nicholas Pooran of the Lucknow Super Giants and Virat Kohli of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who were tied for second place at INR 21 crore. The Mumbai Indians’ decision to keep all of its key Indian players—Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, and Tilak Varma—for a total of INR 75 crore was possibly the high point of retention day.
After keeping only two uncapped players, Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh, for a total of INR 9.5 crore, Punjab Kings have the largest purse left (INR 110.5 crore) to spend at the mega auction. Each team has a total purse of INR 120 crore to build their squads. Together with the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Rajasthan Royals kept a maximum of six players, resulting in the smallest purse of INR 41 crore. At the auction, KKR will have INR 51 crore to spend.
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 via 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 offer will then have another chance to raise it to any amount they like. The player’s former team will then have to match the higher bid in order to repurchase the player.
PBKS has the most RTM choices (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 during the auction.
Of course, if a team bids the highest price for a player during the auction’s regular bidding, they can purchase back as many of the player as they like.
