Stokes missing from IPL 2025 auction long list; Pant, Rahul, Starc list highest base price

Ben Stokes is missing from the list of 1574 players who have registered for the IPL 2025 mega auction to be held on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The long list of registered players, which will be pruned by the IPL after receiving input from the franchises, contains all the marquee Indian players who were not retained by their franchises. Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer - who were captains of Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders, respectively, but were not retained - are listed at a base price of INR 2 crore, along with R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, who were both released by Rajasthan Royals.

Mohammed Shami, who hasn't played any cricket since the 2023 ODI World Cup final in November last year because of various injures, is also listed at a base price of INR 2 crore after not being retained by Gujarat Titans.

The other Indian players with the maximum base price of INR 2 crore are Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan, Ishan Kishan, Mukesh Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, T Natarajan, Devdutt Padikkal, Krunal Pandya, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj and Umesh Yadav.

Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan, who was unsold in the previous auction, have registered at a base price of INR 75 lakh.

Stokes had opted out of IPL 2024 as well to manage his workload and fitness. During the Hundred in August earlier this year, he had suffered a hamstring injury, which sidelined him for two months. According to the IPL rules that were revised this year, an overseas player who does not register for the mega auction will not be allowed to register for the subsequent mini auction, with exceptions only made in case of injuries and/or medical conditions confirmed by the player's home board. This change was made to discourage players from targeting mini-auctions, where bids for marquee players are typically higher than at mega auctions.

Mitchell Starc, who became the most expensive player in IPL history when he was bought for INR 24.50 crore by KKR in 2024, is back in the auction pool at a base price of INR 2 crore. Jofra Archer is also on the list at that same base price, having not played in the IPL since 2023, when he appeared in only five games for Mumbai Indians because of injury issues.

England fast bowler James Anderson, who has not played a T20 since 2014 and never been part of the IPL, has registered for the auction at a base price of INR 1.25 crore. Anderson retired from international cricket during this English summer and took up the role of bowling coach with the England team.

The long list also includes a player from Italy, Thomas Draca, who played from Brampton in the Global T20 Canada. Draca, 24, was more recently picked by MI Emirates for the upcoming season of the ILT20 in the UAE.

Each franchise can build a squad of up to 25 players, which means there are 204 slots available at the auction after 46 players were retained across the ten teams from last season.

Each team has a total purse of INR 120 crore to build their squads, but following the retention, Punjab Kings have the biggest purse remaining (INR 110.5 crore) to spend at the mega auction, followed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (INR 83 crore), Delhi Capitals (INR 73 crore), Gujarat Titans (INR 69 crore), Lucknow Super Giants (INR 69 crore) Chennai Super Kings (INR 55 crore), Kolkata Knight Riders (INR 51 crore), Mumbai Indians (INR 45 crore), Sunrisers Hyderabad (INR 45 crore), Rajasthan Royals (INR 41 crore).

The IPL has allowed teams to retain up to six players this time - of which a maximum of five can be capped and a maximum of two can be uncapped. The six players can either be retained outright ahead of the auction, or can be bought back using Right-to-Match (RTM) options at the auction, or a combination of both.

If a player has been bought by another franchise at the mega auction, the franchise that he was part of in IPL 2024 can step in at the end of the bidding process and buy back their player using the RTM option by matching the highest bid. After that, the franchise that made the winning bid will be given another opportunity to raise the bid to whatever amount they wish. In that case, the player's previous team will have to match the increased bid to buy back their player.

Having retained just two players, PBKS have the most RTM options (four) at the auction. RCB, who retained three players, have three while Delhi Capitals, who retained four players, have two. Five teams - MI, Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, SRH and LSG - retained five players each and have just one RTM option at the auction, while RR and KKR have no RTM options.

There is of course no limit on the number of players a franchise can buy back if they place the highest bids for them during regular bidding at the auction.