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Follow UsIPL Auction is absolute cinema.
Even more so when it is a mega auction, there’s a lot of confusion, chaos, and symbolic volleys thrown across the table. If you missed the auction (like I did for an hour on day one), we have it for you.
Howler in the first set
Auctioneer Mallika Sagar’s troublesome auction started when she gave more than enough time for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to sneak in a bid for Mohammed Shami, which eventually was enough to beat Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) bid.
Then, she proceeded with a blunder while auctioning Jos Buttler. It all began when Buttler’s bid was at INR 15.50 crore when Sagar asked Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) whether they were interested in continuing their pursuit of the 34-year-old English batter.
When LSG backed out, ideally, Sagar should have sold the batter at INR 15.50 core, but instead, she increased the bid on her own to leave Gujarat Titans’ purse lighter by 25 lakhs, selling the player at INR 15.75.
It wasn’t the only one…..
When Abhinav Manohar was sold and bought again
‘When the hammer strikes, a player gets sold’.
Unfortunately, in the case of Karnataka all-rounder Abhinav Manohar, that wasn’t the case. He was sold, unsold and was sold again in the space of a few minutes. That’s as eventful as it gets at an IPL auction.
Sagar put the hammer down at INR 2.4 crore before she reopened the bid, only for SRH to finally swoop him at INR 3.2 crore.
MI-RCB handshake that shook the internet
Was it all planned?
These are the types of events that kick-start an entire genre of conspiracy theory. Tim David and Will Jacks swapping jerseys is possibly one that will be spoken about in the next ten years. So, what really happened there?
SRH opened the bidding for David, with the Australian all-rounder triggering a bidding war between SRH and RCB. To everyone’s surprise, MI didn’t even come into this conversation, letting RCB get the player relatively easily at INR 3 crore.
Just two players down the auction line, MI got Will Jacks without any competition from RCB, even when the franchise from down south had an RTM available. In the aftermath of this saga, the cameras even captured Akash Ambani going to RCB’s table and shaking Prathmesh Mishra’s hands.
Fight for Swastik Chikara
Yet again, an auction disaster class from Sagar.
At INR 30 lakhs, Uttar Pradesh’s superstar T20 batter Swastik Chikara got his first bid from RCB. A few moments later, the hammer went down, but not without Delhi Capitals’ table going crazy. The auctioneer Sagar had completely ignored the DC table when they were raising their paddle for Chikara.
While RCB were adamant that the deal was done, DC quietly let the player go, signalling to Sagar, ‘Carry on with the auction.’
When MI decided not to waste LSG’s purse
The hammer went down, and at INR 75 lakhs, Shamar Joseph was going to be MI’s new pacer. But a few seconds later, LSG were quick in raising their ‘RTM’ paddle for the young West Indian pacer.
MI had the chance to ruin LSG’s purse and increase the bid. But they decided to let that pass, with Akash Ambani signalling to Sanjeev Goenka, ‘Keep your player’.
LSG perhaps just wanted to increase the price, but in the end, MI fooled them, leaving the player to return to LSG.
Indecisive Punjab Kings, yet again
When there’s a mega auction, there’s one team that you wouldn’t want to be on the auction table, and that’s Punjab Kings. They are annoying, so annoying, very annoying, extremely annoying, and so on.
Twice during the IPL 2025 mega auction, PBKS made the other nine teams wait excruciatingly before making a decision on Rachin Ravindra and Nathan Ellis. For Ravindra, the franchise fought hard with CSK till INR 3.2 crore before the five-time IPL winners exercised their RTM option.
That started a long and annoying break that lasted at least five minutes before the franchise came back, raising that bid to just INR 4 crore—all of this for just an INR 0.8 crore increase. If that wasn’t enough, PBKS did it again when they wanted to exercise their RTM for Nathan Ellis.
They thought for a long time before deciding to increase the bid to just INR 0.6 CRORE!
WHAT ON EARTH, PUNJAB? Wasting time for all the franchises to increase the bid to just INR 2 crore.
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