Which franchise had the biggest downgrade at IPL 2025 mega auction?

The teams have reset again. The mega auction is an exhausting exercise, but more than that, it is unfair to the sides that did well in the previous cycle. 

Here is what happens in a mega auction: the more successful teams have to dissipate their star players in the market (not everyone can be retained) and are unable to buy them back since their prices are elevated being the star attraction in a winning side. They don’t have the same quality anymore and have to wait for upcoming mini auctions to fill the gaps in their squad.

It happened to Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals in the 2022 mega auction and Delhi never really recovered from it. It is like punishing the good student in the class for scoring good marks in the previous term.

The trend followed in this mega auction as well. Gujarat Titans, Rajasthan Royals, Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders had the best win percentage between 2022-24, and all the sides have lost a chunk of their strength while re-framing their squads for the upcoming cycle. 

In this piece, we look at how these teams have downgraded (some majorly, some minorly) after the mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. 

Rajasthan Royals 

RR entered the auction with the minimum purse (INR 41 crore) because they had several retention-worthy players. Even after retaining six players and going in without a right-to-match (RTM) card, they were tasked to build their bowling line-up from scratch. Sandeep Sharma was their only retained bowler. They had to secure 16 more overs of bowling.

In 2022, they spent 19.5 crore to sign Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. This time, they spent 22.15 crore for Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga, exhausting 54% of their available purse. And here is an added caveat, Archer is injury-prone with qualms about his participation, unlike Boult who is a T20 globetrotter now. 

Moreover, Hasaranga and Theekshana are overseas players they had to invest in, given that Ashwin (9.5 crore) and Chahal (18 crore) were supposed to be out of their budget. Hence, come IPL 2025, RR would be using three slots in the bowling department alone. 

This coerced them into losing Jos Buttler, their highest run scorer in the cycle. Being one of the most consistent overseas batters in the IPL, Buttler was always going to be out of RR’s grasp given their purse. RR went for Buttler till 9.25 crore but had to drop out eventually, seeing Buttler going to Gujarat at 15.75 crore. 

RR signed only four batters, and Rana was the most high-profile one they signed. He will be taking Buttler’s slot, but this is still a downgrade from the England white-ball skipper. They were also unable to address the number seven issue. They also couldn't sign their first choice as a bowler, having to give up Arshdeep Singh at 14 crore. 

Thus, Rajasthan’s batting now lacks a big player like Buttler, and their bowling has a few question marks. 

Gujarat Titans

The 2022 champions upgraded their top order with the addition of Jos Buttler but had to compromise everywhere else. 

Gujarat’s middle order has a number of combinations possible but is rather inexperienced at the IPL level, signing Mahipal Lomror, Washington Sundar and retaining Shahrukh Khan. None of them have had a long period of success in IPL. The same is the case with their other two overseas batters, Sherfane Rutherford and Glenn Phillips. However, all of these batters can bowl in some capacity which makes you think that Gujarat were focussing on a powerful bowling lineup. 

But even on that front, they seem to be short. To begin with, they couldn't take back Noor Ahmad, who was forming a formidable spin duo with Rashid Khan. It seems like Gujarat will make up for that loss with the finger-spin of their batting all-rounders, which leaves a big gap. 

And here is the biggest caveat: they don’t too many death bowling options. Gujarat had the best economy (9.9) and bowling average (17.3) in the death overs in the 2022-24 cycle. But none of their newly-signed pacers (barring Siraj) were the assigned death overs’ of the franchise they are coming from. 

A look at their first choice XI or XII gives a hint that Rashid would be carrying their bowling at the death which means his use in the middle overs, where he is supposed to be most effective, would be compromised. 

Hence, Gujarat are strengthened at one end but possess several threats to their campaign elsewhere. 

Kolkata Knight Riders

KKR were focused on buying back their previous players. While they have done well in the auction in obtaining older players or finding other personnel to replicate their role, they have missed out on a few key elements of their winning squad in 2024. 

First would be Phil Salt who smashed 485 runs for KKR in 2024 at a strike rate of 182. He was the biggest star among the overseas players released by Kolkata, only because of his exploits in the 2024 season. The 28-year-old was fitting in the scheme for multiple teams that elevated his price tag. Kolkata themselves pushed for Salt till 11.25 crore but were bullied by RCB, a team coming in with the purse of 83 crore as compared to KKR’s 51 crore. KKR later signed Quinton de Kock as a replacement for only 3.6 crore. 

Considering they were willing to blow nearly 50% of their remaining purse on Venkatesh Iyer, whom they eventually acquired beating RCB in a bidding war, they were never going to be able to get back Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana. Unable to get both of them has left the number four spot vacant in the KKR batting line up. They have three options — Angkrish Raghuvanshi (20 years old), Manish Pandey (35) and Ajinkya Rahane (36). Raghuvanshi had a great debut season in 2024 but is still only a raw batting talent. 

If KKR want to play an extra batter under the Impact Player rule, they would have to play two of these three. Hence, the batting power on paper has gone down a bit in the KKR camp. They have Anrich Nortje and Spencer Johnson as the fast-bowling spearhead replacement for Mitchell Starc. But with the Aussie seamer out of their lower order, KKR’s batting depth also takes a hit. 

Hence, The daylight gap between Kolkata and the other teams is no longer there. 

Lucknow Super Giants

LSG took an interesting approach in the auction. They sought an all-India bowling attack and invested their overseas slots in the batting department. However, despite a powerful middle order, their opening combination looks unclear. 

Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh have both averaged under 25 as batters in IPL over the last two seasons. Marsh hasn’t played more than nine games in an IPL season. While they still add value for a side as backups, it is strange that Lucknow have them locked-in in their first-choice XI. Therefore, LSG’s batting is highly dependent on three batters — Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant and David Miller. 

Their reboot from a team of all-rounders to pumping their side with specialists may also backfire. The decision to sign Pant at a record-breaking amount also descended them from Marcus Stoinis to the injury-prone Marsh as their best seam-bowling all-rounder. 

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