IPL 2025 auction Day 1 highlights: LSG breaks bank for Pant, Rs. 467.95 crore spent in total

As expected, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer hogged the limelight as the duo walked away with the most expensive price tags in the history of the IPL.

File photo: Rishabh Pant was bought by Lucknow Super Giants for Rs. 27 crore. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR/The Hindu

Two most expensive signings. 72 players sold. 12 unsold. And a combined total of Rs. 467.95 crore spent.

That was the summary of the proceedings at the Al Johar Abadi Arena here on the first day of the two-day Player Auction of the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

As expected, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer hogged the limelight as the duo walked away with the most expensive price tags in the history of the IPL. While the winning bids for the duo of Rs. 27 crore (Lucknow Super Giants) and Rs. 26.75 crore (Punjab Kings) were on the expected lines, Venkatesh Iyer (Rs. 23.75 crore, Kolkata Knight Riders), Arshdeep Singh (Rs. 18 crore, Punjab Kings) and Yuzvendra Chahal (Rs. 18 crore, Punjab Kings) also raked in the moolah at the IPL auction.

Pant saw LSG going for him right from the start of the bidding till Sanjiv Goenka indicated the incremental Right to Match bid of Rs. 27 crore, which was beyond Delhi Capitals’ reach. It meant that LSG, who had latched on to him for Rs. 20.75 crore before the Capitals came in for the RTM playoff, had the most expensive IPL signing ever, in its stables.

Minutes earlier, Punjab Kings – the franchise that entered the auction with the largest purse of Rs. 110.50 crore – had outbid Delhi Capitals, to sign Shreyas – the last season’s IPL-winning captain – for a whopping Rs. 26.75 crore.

Both bids eclipsed last year’s bid of Rs. 24.75 crore for Mitchell Starc by the Kolkata Knight Riders. But the Knight Riders had its share of limelight when it forced Royal Challengers Bengaluru to withdraw from the bidding war for Venkatesh, the star performer during its winning run last year.

Venkatesh’s price tag may have surprised many but KKR was clear in retaining its core and went all the way in retaining Venkatesh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Rs. 3 crore) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Rs. 2 crore).

Arshdeep, meanwhile, was the first player to be up for bidding. He saw seven teams bidding for him before PBKS exercised the RTM option despite Sunrisers inflating the incremental bid from Rs. 15.75 crore to Rs. 18 crore. Chahal, the veteran leggie, earned a jackpot of Rs. 18 crore with PBKS going all the way from him.

While Mumbai Indians signed the least number of players on the opening day, Chennai Super Kings – like KKR – adopted the “retaining-the-core” policy. While it exercised the RTM option to have Rachin Ravindra (Rs. 4 crore), it started its signing spree by winning the bidding war for Devon Conway (Rs. 6.25 crore).

The five-time champion franchise had Rahul Tripathi as a fresh signing while celebrating veteran offie R. Ashwin’s (Rs. 9.75 crore) homecoming. Ashwin will be teaming up with Afghanistan chinaman Noor Ahmad, who was CSK’s most expensive signing at Rs. 10 crore, thanks to an incremental bid to force Gujarat Titans’ withdrawal.