The IPL 2025 auction has wrapped up, featuring some thrilling bids, surprising steals, and a few disappointments. 

The IPL 2025 auction has wrapped up, featuring some thrilling bids, surprising steals, and a few disappointments. This was the fifth mega auction in IPL history, with Rishabh Pant becoming the most expensive player ever. Lucknow Super Giants purchased Pant for Rs. 27 Crore ($3.2 million), whereas Punjab Kings paid Rs. 6.75 Crore ($3.15 million) for Shreyas Iyer, making him the second most expensive.

Top Bids: Pant and Iyer Lead the Way

For a brief period, Shreyas Iyer held the title of the most expensive player until Pant's price exceeded his. Lucknow Super Giants purchased Pant for Rs. 27 Crore ($3.2 million), whereas Punjab Kings paid Rs. 26.75 Crore ($3.15 million). KKR bought Venkatesh Iyer for Rs. 23.5 Crore, making him the most expensive all-rounder in IPL history. The Punjab Kings also bought Arshdeep Singh and Yazuvendra Chahal for Rs. 18 crore each.

A total of 182 players were sold in the two-day IPL 2025 mega auction for a combined amount of Rs. 639.15 crore. On Day 1, 72 players were sold for Rs. 467.95 crore, with the remaining players being picked on Day 2. CSK, Gujarat, and Punjab Kings were the only three teams to reach the maximum limit of 25 players in the squad, whereas other teams remained between the 20-25 player range.

Impressive Steals in the Auction

 We saw some expensive buys, but there were also some significant steals too:
Delhi Capitals getting KL Rahul for 14 crores.
SRH and Punjab acquiring Ishan Kishan (11.25 crore) and Marcus Stoinis (11 crore), respectively.
The biggest steal was Sam Curran from England, whom CSK bought for a mere 2.4 crore.

RCB’s Controversial Decisions

There was a big disappointment among RCB fans after the team did not use the Right to Match (RTM) card for Will Jacks, the same player who showcased his explosive batting last year with a hundred in just 40 balls, hitting 12 sixes.
RCB maintained a sizeable amount in its purse compared to other teams until the end of the auction, and it was expected they were saving it for Jacks, but it did not happen. Mumbai Indians won the bid at 5.25 Crore, after which the auctioneer asked RCB whether they wanted to use their RTM card. They responded in the negative, allowing MI to acquire Will Jacks.

Then something interesting happened: Akash Ambani, owner of MI, stood up and went over to the RCB table to thank them for not using their RTM card. This was intriguing, especially considering that RCB bought three of last year's MI players, including the well-known all-rounder Tim David, Romario Shepherd, and Nuwan Thusara, for an excellent price with no competition from MI. This led to speculation about whether something happened behind the scenes.

MI’s Strong Comeback

Meanwhile, the MI team started looking very strong after that with the most impressive bowling trio of Jaspreet Bumrah, Trent Bolt, and Deepak Chahar, and a solid batting lineup including Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Surya Kumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, and Hardik Pandya.

Top Buys From Each Team