(ESPN) Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul, the three captains released by their franchises ahead of the retention deadline, will be among the 12 marquee players whose names will kick off the IPL 2025 auction, which will be held on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah.
Indian players make up seven of the marquee names at the auction. Iyer, Pant and Arshdeep Singh are among the first set of six marquee players, while the second includes Rahul, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj. The five overseas names are Australia left-arm quick Mitchell Starc, who broke the record for the highest-ever bid at an IPL auction ahead of the 2024 season, England white-ball captain Jos Buttler, England allrounder Liam Livingstone, South Africa power-hitter David Miller and South Africa quick Kagiso Rabada.
Among the notable absentees from the auction shortlist of 574 players are the express England quicks Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. Archer, who has recently returned to action following a long injury lay-off. Mumbai Indians (MI) splurged INR 8 crore (then USD 1.06 million approx) on Archer at the IPL 2022 auction even though he had just undergone elbow surgery and was not expected to be fit for that season. In the end, he played five games for Mumbai across two seasons before being released. Archer had put himself down in the auction longlist at the maximum base price of INR 2 crore.
Wood was signed by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the 2022 auction, but missed that season with an elbow injury. He played four matches for the franchise in 2023, but was pulled out of the 2024 season by the ECB as part of his workload management ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup. The ECB had also pulled Archer out of the IPL 2024 auction to manage his recovery from injury. Both Archer and Wood are centrally contracted by the ECB.
James Anderson, who recently retired from Test cricket as England’s leading wicket-taker, is part of the shortlist, however. The fast bowler was a red-ball specialist through the latter half of his career, and last played a T20 game in 2014, but has expressed an interest, at the age of 42, to be part of the global franchise circuit following the end of his international career. He will be the oldest player at the auction, listed at a base price of INR 1.25 crore, and will be hoping to feature in the IPL for the first time in his career.
At the other end of the age spectrum, the youngest player at the auction is the left-hand batter Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who at 13 has already played five first-class matches for Bihar and two Youth Test matches for India Under-19s, scoring a century against Australia Under-19s last month.
Another teenager who could attract interest at the auction is the Sri Lanka Under-19 fast bowler Dumindu Sewmina, who has played just the one T20 game but has caught the eye with his low, slingy action, and recently earned a spot in the Lanka T10 league. He will be hoping to follow fellow Lasith Malinga clones Matheesha Pathirana and Nuwan Thushara into the IPL.
This is the first time since the 2018 auction that the marquee list has been split in two. Back then, there were 16 marquee players across the two sets. In the last mega auction in 2022, a single set of 10 marquee players kicked off proceedings.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), who have retained the maximum allowance of six players each, will not be able to use any right-to-match cards during the auction. Punjab Kings (PBKS) will have four RTMs at their disposal, while Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will have three, and Delhi Capitals (DC) two. Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Gujarat Titans (GT), Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Mumbai Indians (MI) will have only one RTM each.
The RTM option will allow teams to buy back players they released by matching the highest bid made for them. In this auction, the team making the highest bid will be allowed to increase their bid one final time, in which case the team using the RTM card will again have the option of matching the new bid to sign the player.
Of the 574 players at the auction, 366 are Indian and 208 from overseas. Three are from Associate teams: Ali Khan and the former India Under-19 captain Unmukt Chand (both USA) and Brandon McMullen (Scotland). Of the 330 uncapped players, 318 are Indian and 12 from overseas.
A total of 204 slots remain to be filled across the 10 teams, with 70 available to overseas players. The auction will begin at 1pm local time (3.30pm IST) on November 24.
