James Anderson headlines IPL 2025 auction list, no Ben Stokes; Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer list highest base price

Each franchise will be able to form a maximum squad of 25 players (including retained players), and a total of 204 slots will be up for grabs at the auction.

In a surprising move, veteran England fast bowler James Anderson, who last played a T20 match in 2014 and never played a match in the Indian Premier League (IPL), registered himself for the mega auction for IPL 2025, slated to take place on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah. Anderson is a retired England cricketer, having last played his international match earlier this summer, and is currently the bowling coach of the national team.

According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, top India stars, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer – who were captains of Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders, respectively, but were unfortunately released ahead of the auction, listed themselves for the highest base price of INR 2 crore. Also part of the list is Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, who plied trades with Rajasthan Royals in the previous season.

Mohammed Shami, who has not played competitive cricket since the 2023 ODI World Cup final as he continues to recover from his ankle injury with no confirmation yet on his potential return date, also listed himself in the 2-crore list. Other Indian players include – haleel 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.

Among notable overseas players in the 2-crore category are former Kolkata Knight Riders bowler Mitchell Starc, who was roped in for a whopping INR 24.50 crore in the last IPL auction, and England’s Jofra Archer, who last played an IPL match for Mumbai Indians in 2023. Meanwhile, England red-ball captain Ben Stokes opted out of the next IPL season.