IPL 2025 auction: From Mitchell Starc to Sam Curran, check season-wise costliest players in history

With just two days left until the auction of the Indian Premier League 2025 kicks off in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah, speculations are rife about who might emerge as the priciest player this year.

In the 2024 IPL auction, Australian pacer Mitchell Starc was picked by Shah Rukh Khan’s co-owned franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders, for an eye-popping ₹24.75 crore.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has finalised 366 Indian players and 208 overseas cricketers for the IPL 2025 edition. Several strong contenders, like Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Jos Buttler, and Shreyas Iyer, are likely to spark bidding wars. 

The list of uncapped players includes 318 Indians and 12 international cricketers. Across all 10 teams in the auction, franchises are set to fill 204 slots, including 70 reserved for overseas players.

This time, the BCCI has raised the lowest base price for players to ₹30 lakh, up by ₹10 lakh from last year. 

Once again, Mallika Sagar will helm the action for IPL 2025.

Highest bidding players in IPL history:

2008: Mahendra Singh Dhoni by Chennai Super Kings at $1.5 million.

2009: Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen picked by CSK and Royal Challengers Bangalore for a price of $1.55 million each.

2010: KKR picked Shane Bond, while the Mumbai Indians bought Kieron Pollard for $750k million each.

2011: KKR bought Gautam Gambhir for $2.4 million.

2012: Rajasthan Royals bought Ravindra Jadeja for $2 million.

2013: Mumbai Indians bought Glenn Maxwell for $1 million.

2014: Yuvraj Singh was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for ₹14 crore.

2015: Yuvraj Singh was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for ₹16 crore.

2016: Shane Watson was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for ₹9.5 crore.

2017: Rising Pune Supergiants bought Ben Stokes for ₹14.5 crore.

2018: Rajasthan Royals bought Ben Stokes for ₹12.5 crore.

2019: Rajasthan Royals picked Jaydev Unadkat for ₹8.4 crore.

2020: KKR bought Pat Cummins for ₹15.5 crore.

2021: Rajasthan Royals picked Chris Morris for ₹16.25 crore.

2022: Ishan Kishan was bought by Mumbai Indians for ₹15.25 crore.

2023: Punjab Kings bought Sam Curran for ₹18.50 crore.

2024: KKR bought Mitchell Starc for ₹24.75 crore.