Lucknow Super Giants sign Rishabh Pant for a record INR 27 crores

Rishabh Pant set the record for the most expensive player signed at an IPL auction after being bought by the Lucknow Super Giants for INR 27 crores. The bid for the 27-year-old Pant surpassed the INR 26.75 crores that Punjab Kings shelled out to sign Shreyas Iyer earlier in the first marquee set of the IPL 2025 mega auction.

LSG entered the bidding for Pant straight off the bat and stayed the course to thwart attempts from Royal Challengers Bengaluru as well as the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Eventually, the bidding for him stopped at INR 20.75 crores, at which point the Delhi Capitals indicated their interest to use the Right To Match (RTM) option. LSG then decided to hike up the price to INR 27 crores as per the new regulations, which proved to be beyond Delhi's valuation of their former captain.

Before Pant's big payday, the 'M1' marquee set of the auction also saw IPL 2024-winning captain Shreyas Iyer becoming the first Indian player to breach the INR 20 crore-mark in the auction's history. Iyer's signing was sought by both of the teams he's captained previously, DC and KKR, before PBKS flexed their hefty auction purse to wrest him for INR 26.75 crores.

A third Indian player broke the INR 20-crore mark as was anticipated following the increased 'per team' price cap to INR 120 crores, but it was not for KL Rahul, as was widely tipped in pre-auction predictions. Venkatesh Iyer, who hit half-centuries in Qualifier 1 and the Final this year, was bought back by KKR for a whopping INR 23.75 crores following an intense bidding war with RCB with the defending champions looking to retain much of the core that won them their third title in 2024.

Big value for keeper-bats

Keeper-bats found good value through the opening day's proceedings with former Orange Cap-winner Jos Buttler the recipient of an INR 15.75 crores bid from Gujarat Titans. Interestingly, KL Rahul, another captain from the 2024 season up for grabs, didn't come close to matching the valuations for Iyer, Pant or Venkatesh Iyer, with Delhi Capitals signing him for INR 14 crores, down from the INR 17 crores Rahul earned at his previous club, LSG.

Three other keeper-bats breached the 10-crore mark with RCB bagging the pair of Phil Salt (11.5 crores) and Jitesh Sharma (11 crores) while Ishan Kishan went to SRH for INR 11.25 crores.

Arshdeep leads pace pack's big payout

India's World Cup-winning fast bowler Arshdeep Singh was the first player to be auctioned on the day and sparked an immediate bidding battle with as many as six teams vying for his signature. SRH eventually had their paddle up last at INR 15.75 crores after which PBKS expressed an intention to use their RTM. Sunrisers pushed the price up further to INR 18 crores but PBKS were willing to re-sign the left-armer who has played for them since 2019.

In line with a trend that was established in the previous mega auction and predicted following teams' preference to retain batters, a sizeable portion of each team's available auction purse was apportioned for the quicks. But given there were enough available, every franchise was able to pick up at least one each at a big price. Josh Hazlewood and Jofra Archer's hit-the-deck specialisation earned them INR 12.5 crores bid from RCB and RR respectively while Mumbai Indians made a belated first purchase deep into the day's proceeding by signing PowerPlay enforcer Trent Boult for the same price.

Gujarat Titans allowed Mohammed Shami to go to SRH for INR 10 crores but replaced him with compatriot Mohammed Siraj for INR 12.25 crores. Mitchell Starc, who was signed for a then record price of INR 24.75 crores in the last auction, had his value slashed to INR 11.75 crores and found a new home at Delhi, who paired him with another left-armer T. Natarajan, who was signed for INR 10.75 crores.

The shallow specialist spin pool

Given that the best of specialist spinners were already retained, teams were fishing in a rather shallow pool of options. Yuzvendra Chahal, the league's leading wicket-taker, was a beneficiary of a big INR 18 crores from PBKS. Ravichandran Ashwin, on the other hand, returned to CSK for INR 9.75 crores, reuniting with a team he'd won IPL titles with in 2010 and 2011. CSK also signed Afghan wristspinner Noor Ahmad for INR 10 crores after doubling their bid value with a hike following GT's intentions to use their RTM.

The Sri Lankan pair of Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana were both signed by RR for INR 5.25 crores and INR 4.4 crores respectively.

In all, a total of INR 467.95 crores was splurged on 72 players (24 overseas) on the first day with Punjab Kings spending the most -- INR 88 crores -- on the 10 players signed. The auction will resume on Monday (November 25).

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