All the drama on an action-filled Day 1 of the two-day 2025 IPL mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia played out early. Within a span of minutes, the highest-priced IPL player record was bettered twice. Shreyas Iyer was the third name up for sale, after pacers Arshdeep Singh (Rs.18 crore) and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada ( ₹10.75 crore). Bidding for Shreyas, captain of current champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) zoomed past the record of Rs. 24.75 crore paid for Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc by KKR at last year’s auction. Punjab Kings (PBKS) eventually bought Shreyas for Rs.26.75 crore.

Soon after Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), searching for a skipper like PBKS and three other teams, went even better by surpassing the bid for Shreyas in acquiring Pant, acknowledged as the hottest draw after he entered the auction.

The five most expensive contracts in Sunday’s proceedings went to Indian players, typical of mega auctions where there are more attractive home players available compared to mini auctions. These five – Arshdeep and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal ( ₹18 crore) being fourth and fifth and Venkatesh Iyer (Rs.23.75 crore) third in the list – cost teams a total of Rs.113.5 crore.

Those holding the paddle power in the auction room accompanied with data intel from their analysts had stretched Pant’s bidding up to Rs. 20.75 crore. As many as four franchises bid aggressively. Among them were Delhi Capitals too, who had already lost a fierce bidding war for Shreyas to PBKS. Auctioneer Malika Sagar asked DC if they wanted to exercise the Right To Match card. They did, but as it turned out, LSG were determined to pull out all stops to secure the wicket-keeper batter’s services. LSG owner Sanjeev Goenka spelt out a significant incremental bid – Rs.27 crore. DC gave up. There were handshakes on the LSG table. Lucknow had in all likelihood their new captain. ‘Shukriya, Rishabh’ video followed on DC’s social media.

Purely from a cricketing standpoint, one could reason that there are many with a better T20 batting record than Shreyas (IPL SR 127.48). Even Pant (SR 148.93) is yet to ace the T20 format. But ringing in the pricing argument is almost futile in the auction room. We have seen it over 17 auctions, how teams’ priority is to fill their vacant slots, find the best bets for their first playing elevens, now twelves with the Impact Player Rule.

In both the record buys, Pant and Shreyas, the incentive to have an Indian captain stoked a bidding war. LSG appeared sure they had slotted in Pant as captain once they looked past KL Rahul during retentions.

“Everyone knows Rishabh’s value. He is dynamic, a winner. They (LSG) have done well to get him,” PBKS’ new head coach Ricky Ponting said after the bidding. Ponting wanted to rejoin forces with Shreyas – the two had worked together as captain-coach at DC. It made LSG’s task a tad easier, else Pant’s bidding could have gone into orbit.

Similarly, Shreyas’s name wouldn’t have come into the auction at all had KKR given more weightage to his captaincy. At variance with some other team’s tactics, they prioritised retaining their T20 specialists and the more experienced players. Although even their tactics did not prove to be fool proof as they had to shell out Rs.23.75 crore later to buy back batting all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer – a possible captaincy candidate – after finding themselves lagging in many bidding wars.

Shreyas was “elated” to join PBKS, who used the weight of their spending power (Rs.110.5 crore) to get him. It was quite a statement from the middle-order batter to end a tumultuous year on a high, where he lost his India contract, was not retained by the team that he led to the IPL title but got a vote of approval from market forces. In Pant’s case, once he proved he retained his cheerful approach to cricket after making a successful comeback following his horrific accident, many, most certainly LSG, felt sky was his limit.

Among other Indians, KL Rahul (Rs.14 crore) proved to be quite a bargain buy for DC, also looking for a new skipper. It was a homecoming for R Ashwin, who went to Chennai Super Kings for Rs.9.75 crore. Caught Dhoni bowled Ashwin, one final time in IPL 2025?