MUMBAI: Surprises galore! That’s what the day one of Tata IPL 2025 Mega Auction/player draft in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia threw up yesterday with some players being bought for astounding prices and some going unsold. Overall, the managements of the 10 teams spent Rs 467.5 crore, purchasing 72 players, of which 24 players were international players.

Amongst the biggest eyeopeners was the Rs 27 crore sticker price that Lucknow Super Giants paid to acquire the swashbuckling Rishabh Pant, making him the most expensive cricketer in the league’s history. Earlier, Punjab Kings coughed up Rs 26.75 crore for Shreyas Iyer  breaking the Rs 24.75 crore record set for Mitchell Starc by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024.

Kolkata Knight Riders also almost broke the bank by shoveling Rs 23.75 crore for  all arounder Venkatesh Iyer. Leggie Yuzvendra Chahal became the most expensive Indian spinner ever in IPL as Punjab Kings  picked him for Rs 18 crore. Pacer Arshdeep Singh who was the first player to be put on the blocks during the auction was also purchased by Punjab Kings for an astounding Rs 18 crore, using the right to match card, beating out Sunrisers Hyderabad in the process. Amongst the players who went shockingly unsold included: Devdutt Padikkal, David Warner and Piyush Chawla.

When the day began, a total of 574 players were  shortlisted from an initial pool of 1,574 names. This included 208 overseas players, 12 uncapped overseas talents, and 318 uncapped Indian players. Mallika Sagar stood up as the auctioneer for the whole period of the auction.

Chennai Super Kings had held on to  Ruturaj Gaikwad, MS Dhoni; Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube and Matheesha Pathirana while Mumbai Indians had retained Hardik Pandya. Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Tilak Varma. On the other hand Royal Challengers Bengaluru retained Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal and Sunrisers Hyderabad retained Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy.

While Delhi Capitals players retained Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abhishek Porel. Punjab Kings had decided to continue with only Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh. Gujarat Titans retained Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan  even as Lucknow Super Giants retained Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav , Ayush Badoni and Mohsin Khan. Rajasthan Royals held on to Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer and Sandeep Sharma even as Kolkata Knight Riders retained Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana and Ramandeep Singh.

This gave Punjab Kings  a purse of Rs 110.5 crore when the auction commenced,; Rajasthan Royals, Rs 41 crore; Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rs 83 crore, Delhi Capitals, Rs 73 crore;  Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 69 crore;  Gujarat Titans, Rs 69 crore; Chennai Super Kings,  Rs 55 crore; Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 51 crore; Mumbai Indians, Rs 45 crore and Sunrisers Hyderabad,  Rs 45 crore.

The players who were bought today included:  

Kagiso Rabada (by  Gujarat Titans for Rs 10.75 crore); Jos Buttler (Gujarat Titans, Rs 15.75 crore); 
Mitchell Starc (Delhi Capitals, Rs 11.75 crore); Mohammed Shami (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 10 crore); David Miller (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 7.50 crore);  Mohammed Siraj (Gujarat Titans, 12.25 crore); Liam Livingstone (Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rs 8.75 crore); K.L. Rahul (Delhi Capitals, Rs 14 crore); Harry Brook (Delhi Capitals, Rs 6.25 crore); Aiden Markram (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 2 crore);  Devon Conway (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 6.25 crore); Rahul Tripathi (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 3.40 crore); Jake Fraser-McGurk (Delhi Capitals, Rs 9 crore); Harshal Patel (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 8 crore); Rachin Ravindra (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 4 crore); Ravichandran Ashwin  (Chennai Super Kings,  Rs 9.75 crore); Marcus Stoinis (Punjab Kings; Rs 11 crore);  Mitchell Marsh (Lucknow Super Giants; Rs 3.40 crore); Glenn Maxwell goes (Punjab  Kings, Rs 4.20 crore); Quinton de Kock (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 3.60 crore); Phil Salt (Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rs 11.5 crore); Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 2 crore);  Ishan Kishen (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 11.25 crore);  Jitesh  Sharma (Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rs 11 crore); Josh Hazlewood (Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rs 12.50 crore); Prasidh Krishna (Gujarat Titans, Rs 9.5 crore); Avesh Khan (Lucknow Super Giants,  Rs 9.75 crore); Anrich Nortje (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 6.5 crore); Jofra Archer (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 12.5 crore); Khaleel Ahmed (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 4.80 crore); T. Natarajan (Delhi Capitals, Rs 10.75 crore); Trent Boult (Mumbai Indians, Rs 12.5 crore); Maheesh Theekshana (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 4.40 crore);  Rahul Chahar (Sunrisers Hyderabad,Rs 3.20 crore); Adam Zampa (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 2.40 crore); Wanindu Hasaranga (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 5.25 crore); Noor Ahmad (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 10 crore); Atharva Taide (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 30 lakh); Nehal Wadhera (Punjab Kings, Rs 4.20 crore); Karun Nair (Delhi Capitals; Rs 50 lakh), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 3 crore); Abhinav Manohar (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 3.20 crore); buy Nishant Sindhu (Gujarat Titans, Rs 30 lakh); Naman Dhir (Mumbai Indians, Rs 5.25 crore); Sameer Rizvi (Delhi Capitals, Rs 95 lakh); Abdul Samad (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 4.20 crore); Harpreet Brar (Punjab Kings, Rs 1.50 crore); Vijay Shankar (Chennai Super Kings, Rs 1.20 crore); Mahipal Lomror (Gujarat Titans, Rs 1.70 crore); Ashutosh Sharma (Delhi Capitals, Rs 3.80 crore); Vishnu Vinod (Punjab Kings, Rs 95 lakh); Aryan Juyal (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 30 lakh); Anuj Rawat (Gujarat Titans, Rs 30 lakh); Robin Minz (Mumbai Indians, Rs 65 lakh); Kumar Kushagra (Gujarat Titans, Rs 65 lakh); Akash Madhwal (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 1.20 crore); Mohit Sharma (Delhi Capitals, Rs 2.20 crore); Vyshak Vijaykumar (Punjab Kings, Rs 1.80 crore). Vaibhav Arora (Kolkata Knight Riders , Rs 1.80 crore); Yash Thakur (Punjab Kings, Rs 1.60 crore); Simarjeet Singh (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rs 1.5 crore); Suyash Sharma (Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rs 2.6 crore); Manav Suthar (Gujarat Titans, Rs 30 lakh); Kumar Kartikeya Singh (Rajasthan Royals, Rs 30 lakh); Mayank Markande (Kolkata Knight Riders, Rs 30 lakh); Karn Sharma (Mumbai Indians, Rs 50 lakh) and Rasikh Dhar (Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rs 6 crore).