IPL 2025 Mega Auction: Pant, Iyer eclipse bidding records

Rishabh Pant has broken the record for the most expensive player in the Indian Premier League, selling for just under US$3.2 million to the Lucknow Super Giants at the IPL Mega Auction in Jeddah on Sunday.

The Indian wicketkeeper surpassed the record set earlier in the evening by compatriot Shreyas Iyer, who was bought by the Punjab Kings for $3.16 million.

The previous record for the most expensive player in the T20 league was held by Australia’s Mitchell Starc, who sold for just under $3 million to the Kolkata Knight Riders last season.

Both Pant and Iyer will likely captain their respective sides, who are betting underdogs heading into the 2025 IPL season.

Cricket betting sites have Lucknow at +900 to win their maiden title, while Punjab (+1200) have the longest outright odds of the 10-team competition.

“I wanted to work with Shreyas,” Kings coach Ricky Ponting said after day one of the IPL auction.

“I’ve worked with him before and he is a great guy and a great player.

“He’ll be a great leader for our team if we decide to go that way, which I’m pretty sure we probably will.

“Obviously, he was the championship-winning captain last year.

“So, there are lots of great things about bringing him to Punjab.”

Other big sales from the auction include Indian all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, who was bought back by Kolkata for $4.33 million.

Plenty of overseas players landed big paydays too, with the Gujarat Titans claiming England’s Jos Buttler ($1.88m) and South African pacer Kagiso Rabada ($1.28m).

“We wanted to buy our No.1 bowler and No.1 batter from the marquee set and we have both,” Titans assistant coach Parthiv Patel said.

Starc also had a change of home, going for $1.40 million to the Delhi Capitals — a significant drop from his earlier, record-breaking price.

Delhi also bought Indian batsman KL Rahul for $1.67 million.

“Pretty elated with the buys,” Capitals coach Hemang Badani said.

“Both KL and Starc are world-class players.

“In fact, they’re battling each other right now in India versus Australia, so it’s pretty interesting.”

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