The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction has taken place on November 24 and 25, 2024 at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The two-day mega auction – which takes place once every three years – will see some renowned players go under the hammer as well, including Rishabh Pant, Mitchell Starc, KL Rahul, Jos Buttler and to name a few.
The 10 IPL franchises will take part in the auction, where a total of 577 players enter the bidding process as well. Among them, 367 will be Indian, while 210 are overseas as well. Moreover, each IPL team must have at least 18 players in their roster at the end of the auction as well.
Here are the players Kolkata Knight Riders retained before the mega auction.
Before Auction
Retained Players: Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh
KKR: 51crore – Remaining slots – 19, Overseas 6
During Auction
Venkatesh Iyer: Veteran allrounder Venkatesh Iyer entered at 2 crore. KKR opened the bidding with LSG too joined. Both LSG and KKR battled as the bidding continued. LSG raised the bid up to 6 crore but KKR came up with at 7.75 crore. Soon RCB joined and both KKR and RCB competed for Iyer and the bid went past 12 crore. However, after a lot of tussle, KKR bought him for a whopping price of 23.75 crore.
Quinton de Kock: Quinton de Kock entered the bid for 2 crore. SRH strated with MI came in at 2.2 crore. However, KKR sealed the deal with 3.6 crore.
Anrich Nortje: South Africa pace bowler Anrich Nortje entered at 2 crore base price. LSG opened the bidding for him and they face competition from KKR. It went past 5 crore and went to 6.5 crore as well. DC didn’t use their RTM on Nortje as he was sold to KKR for 6.5 crore as well.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi: He had a base price of INR 35 lakh. KKR, the team he last played bid for him immediately alongside CSK. It soon went past the 2 crore mark with KKR buying him for INR 3 crore as well.
Vaibhav Arora:
HP swing king Vaibhav Arora enters at 30 lakh. Won IPL 2024 with KKR. KKR, of course, open the bidding for their man. RR now enter the fray and compete with KKR for Arora.
Slow lifting of paddles at the KKR and RR tables as the bid crosses 1 crore. KKR in at 1.2 crore. RR belatedly jump back in. RR tap out. KKR back in the lead at 1.6 crore.
DC come in at 1.7 crore. They need some right-arm variety in their attack. KKR hike it up to 1.8 crore. Sold to KKR for 1.8 crore
Mayank Markande: Mayank Markande has set his base price at 30 lakh. Was with SRH in IPL 2024. KKR come in and make the first bid and that’s the final bid. SRH don’t want to execute their RTM on the legspinner
