Most Expensive Players in IPL 2025 Auction: The 18th edition of the Indian Premier League is scheduled to be played between 14 March and 25 May 2025. A total of 74 matches will be played between 10 participating teams.
BCCI planned to host the IPL 2025 mega auction on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia while announced October 31 as the deadline for the teams to submit their retained players list.
Though this year’s auction was planned to be hosted outside India, fans can still enjoy the IPL 2025 auction live streaming from their home.
BCCI has shortlisted 574 players from the registered players list and announced the IPL 2025 auction players list with their base price details. 204 slots will be up for grabs with 70 available slots for overseas players.
As a part of the season, BCCI will release the IPL 2025 schedule, IPL 2025 squad, IPL 2025 live streaming, IPL 2025 ticket booking links, and IPL 2025 team jersey details right before the start of the tournament.
Most Expensive Players in IPL 2025 Auction
According to the new IPL 2025 rules released by BCCI, overseas players will be slapped with a two-year ban if the players skip the tournament after being picked up in the mega auction.
As per the IPL committee rules, each franchise can have 25 players in their squad, out of which a maximum of 8 can be foreign players. In Playing 11, each team can have a maximum of 4 overseas players in the mix.
Following are the details of the Most Expensive Players in IPL 2025 auction on Day 01:
| No | Player | Role | Team | Price |
| 1 | Rishabh Pant | Wk-batter | Lucknow Super Giants | INR 27 Crore |
| 2 | Shreyas Iyer | Batter | Punjab Kings | INR 26.75 Crore |
| 3 | Venkatesh Iyer | All-rounder | Kolkata Knight Riders | INR 23.75 crore |
| 4 | Arshdeep Singh | Bowler | Punjab Kings | INR 18 Crore |
| 5 | Yuzvendra Chahal | Bowler | Punjab Kings | INR 18 Crore |
| 6 | Jos Buttler | Wk-batter | Gujarat Titans | INR 15.75 crore |
| 7 | KL Rahul | Wk-batter | Delhi Capitals | INR 14 crore |
| 8 | Jofra Archer | Bowler | Rajasthan Royals | INR 12.50 Crore |
| 9 | Josh Hazlewood | Bowler | Royal Challengers Bengaluru | INR 12.50 Crore |
| 10 | Trent Boult | Bowler | Mumbai Indians | INR 12.50 Crore |
IPL 2025 Mega Auction Top Buys
These are the most expensive buys in the IPL 2025 mega auction by the end of Day 01.
| Category | Player | Price in IPL 2025 Auction | Team |
| Most Expensive Player | Rishabh Pant | INR 27 Crore | LSG |
| Most Expensive Batsman | Shreyas Iyer | INR 26.75 Crore | PBKS |
| Most Expensive Bowler | Arshdeep Singh / Yuzvendra Chahal | INR 18 Crore | PBKS/ PBKS |
| Most Expensive Allrounder | Venkatesh Iyer | INR 23.75 Crore | KKR |
| Most Expensive Wicketkeeper | Rishabh Pant | INR 27 Crore | LSG |
| Most Expensive Overseas player | Jos Buttler | INR 15.75 Crore | GT |
| Most Expensive Uncapped player | Rasikh Salam Dar | INR 6 Crore | RCB |
| Most Expensive Capped Indian player | Rishabh Pant | INR 27 Crore | LSG |
IPL 2025 Mega Auction Rules
- Each team can retain six players from their existing squad, either via retention or by using the Right to Match (RTM) option.
- The franchise can decide on a combination of retentions and RTMs.
- A team can retain a maximum of five capped players whether Indian or Overseas and a maximum of 2 uncapped players.
- BCCI has set various retention slabs for the player’s retention. The first retention must be INR 18 crore, the second INR 14 crore, the third INR 11 crore, the fourth INR 18 crore, the fifth INR 14 crore and the uncapped Rs 4 crore but franchises are also allowed to divide the 75cr retention amount among 5 capped players.
- If a team choose to retain a player for more than INR 18 Cr then the franchise should retain their second or third player for less than the desired amount. Teams can flex the retention amount as they wish but should be within the designated amount of INR 43 Crore(18+14+11) for three retentions.
- Ex: If CSK wishes to retain Gaikwad, Jadeja and Dube as their first three retentions and decides to retain Gaikwad for INR 20 Cr(which is INR 2 Cr over the first retention amount), then CSK must retain Jadeja for INR 12 Cr or Dube for INR 9 Cr which in turn will meet the INR 43 crore budget for the first three retentions.
- As an overseas player, he has to register for the Mega Auction. In case if he fails to do so, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction.
- As per the new rule, an overseas player will have to mandatorily register for the mega auction (2025) if he fails to do so he will miss the subsequent small auction too.
- If any player registers in the player auction and after getting picked by a team and later makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, he will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for two seasons.
- A capped player will be considered an uncapped player if the player has not featured in the starting XI in any international games(Test, T20I, ODI) in the last five calendar years or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. This will only be applicable to the Indian players.
- The auction purse value of each team has been set at INR 120 crores while it was INR 100 crores for the last auction.
- BCCI will finalize the auction players list and group them into three different categories: Capped, Uncapped, and Overseas players.
- Capped – Indian players who represented the country’s senior team in any format at least once.
- Uncapped – Indian domestic players who are in the first-class circuit but haven’t represented India in any international matches.
- Overseas – Players who are not from India. This category will contain all capped, uncapped non-Indian players.
- BCCI allows each franchise to have a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 25 players in their squad.
- A team can hold a maximum of eight foreign players with only four being allowed to field at one time during the match.
