IPL 2024 auction: Why did the Iyers attract such big bids?

The ten IPL teams have started to take shape, but there's a long way to go yet. As we go from day one to day two of the IPL 2025 mega auction, here are some questions we have tried to answer.

How did Shreyas Iyer get such a massive payday?

It might strike some as strange that a batter who has not played a T20I in almost a year should earn more than the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Heinrich Klaasen, not to mention Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. But that's the nature of the auction, where supply and demand dictate bids, and objective valuation is sometimes incidental.

Delhi Capitals (DC) had Shreyas Iyer as their captain from 2019 to 2021 and reached the playoffs in all three seasons, making the final in 2020. The DC coach at the time was Ricky Ponting, now head coach at Punjab Kings (PBKS). Both DC and PBKS needed a captain going into the auction and focussed on Shreyas, who had won IPL 2024 as captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Both teams had big purses in hand and were willing to spend up to a third of that on a captain - remember that there have been just eight captains who have won the IPL, and Shreyas is one of them.

As a batter, while Shreyas was somewhat overshadowed by KKR's hard-hitting top-order batters, he has struck at 140-plus over the past three seasons while averaging close to 35, so he is up there with some of the most effective top-order bats in the IPL.

Why did KKR spend INR 23.75 crore on Venkatesh Iyer?

It was one of the most befuddling sequences in IPL auction history in a long time. Especially because KKR had the option of retaining Venkatesh Iyer as a fifth capped player for INR 14 crore. They instead chose to retain the uncapped Ramandeep Singh for INR 4 crore.

To be fair to KKR, their retentions of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Rinku Singh plus the two uncapped players - Ramandeep and Harshit Rana (who hadn't played for India at the time of the deadline) - looked sensible, since Venkatesh wasn't expected to be at the centre of such a big bidding war - between KKR and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). But, again, what caused the bidding frenzy was the demand vs supply dynamics.

When Venkatesh's name came up, RCB were desperate for a big buy after falling short in their bids for Mitchell Starc and KL Rahul, among others. They had only bought Liam Livingstone at that point, and they still had INR 74.25 crore remaining. KKR had failed to bring back Shreyas and had also fallen short in their bid for Rahul. They had INR 51 crore left. Both teams needed a top-order Indian batter, and most of the big names were not available to fight over.

While not the biggest name, Venkatesh is one of just seven Indian batters to have scored 500-plus runs at an average of over 30 and a strike rate over 150 in the past two seasons. The other six had all been retained. That might explain why RCB, who withdrew before reaching the INR 11 crore mark in the bidding for Rahul, were willing to go so much higher for Venkatesh.

Also, KKR wanted to retain as much of their IPL 2024 winning squad as possible, and having missed out on both Starc and Shreyas, they really wanted Venkatesh, who might also be a captaincy option.

How did the new RTM rule impact the auction?

For one, it assured Rishabh Pant became the most expensive player in IPL history, as many had predicted before the auction.

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) had the initial bid for Pant at INR 20.75 crore in their favour, but DC triggered their right-to-match (RTM) option. With the new rule, LSG had one further opportunity to raise their bid, which they did to INR 27 crore (US$3.17 million approx.), and DC felt that figure was too high.

Shashwat Goenka, one of the LSG owners, explained that INR 27 crore was not a "magic number" but a figure arrived at after much thought that ensured DC would not buy back Pant.

The new RTM rule was brought in to ensure players get what they deserve, though several franchises were not in favour of it. And there were several other beneficiaries of the new RTM rule.

Noor Ahmad saw his price doubled as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) upped their final bid of INR 5 crore to hold Gujarat Titans (GT) away. Jitesh Sharma fetched an extra INR 4 crore as RCB went up to INR 11 crore to make PBKS withdraw their RTM option. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) raised their bid of INR 15.75 crore to INR 18 for Arshdeep Singh, which PBKS matched. And it was PBKS doing the raising for Jake Fraser-McGurk, from INR 5.50 crore to INR 9 crore, which DC matched. Uncapped seamer Rasikh Salam went for INR 6 crore after DC used their RTM option and RCB raised their bid from INR 2 crore to INR 6 crore. Similarly, Harshal Patel, Rachin Ravindra and Naman Dhir also saw their prices go up after the RTM option came into play.

In all, just four RTM options were used successfully on day one of the auction, since many teams were priced out by the last bidders. Expect that to be a factor again on the second day.

Why did Starc get less than Hazlewood, Boult and Archer?

Starc, the most expensive buy at the IPL 2024 auction at INR 24.75 crore, went for just INR 11.75 crore (US$1.40 million approx.) this time. While he did leak runs at times last season, Starc did produce the key breakthroughs in the playoffs for title-winners KKR. That he and Kagiso Rabada (INR 10.75 crore or US$1.28 million approx.) went for less than some of the other overseas quicks probably had more to do with their entry point at the auction than quality. Starc and Rabada were in Set 1, when teams were still saving their purses for the big Indian names coming up in the next few rounds.

RCB, who eventually bought Josh Hazlewood for INR 12.50 crore (US$1.49 million approx.), were clearly waiting for KL Rahul and Venkatesh and therefore stopped their bidding after a point for Starc. Once they could not secure those Indian players, though, they went all-in for Hazlewood.

Similarly, Mumbai Indians (MI), who were bidding for Rabada, were waiting for Indian players such as Ishan Kishan. Once they hit the fast bowlers' set with no buys yet, they bid hard for Hazlewood, Jofra Archer and finally Trent Boult, whom they got at INR 12.50 crore.

Did overseas quicks go at a premium again?

As usual, overseas quicks were in high demand. This is despite there also being a good supply of Indian quicks. Apart from Arshdeep, who was the first player to go under the hammer at the auction and on whom PBKS used an RTM, only Mohammed Siraj (INR 12.25 crore) broke the INR 12-crore barrier among Indian quicks on day one. T Natarajan, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan and Prasidh Krishna earned deals in the INR 9-11 crore range, all falling outside the top-six most expensive pacers.

As a result of teams targeting overseas quicks, overseas top-order batters appeared to go at budget prices. Apart from Jos Buttler, who went to GT for INR 15.75 crore (US$1.88 million approx,), and Phil Salt, who went to RCB for INR 11.50 crore (US$1.37 million approx.), no overseas top-order batter crossed the INR 10-crore mark. Only one other top-order batter made the overseas top ten on day one - Fraser-McGurk, on whom Capitals used an RTM to get him for INR 9 crore (US$1.07 million approx.).

The rest of the overseas top ten included allrounder Marcus Stoinis, Noor, and five seamers. Glenn Maxwell, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra all went in the INR 4-7 crore range, while David Warner went unsold.

Did big-name Indian players command a premium?

Indeed. Perhaps even more than expected.

Just the top five Indian buys - Pant, Shreyas, Venkatesh, Yuzvendra Chahal and Arshdeep - went for INR 113.50 crore (US$13.4 million approx.) combined. Add in the next five - Rahul, Siraj, Kishan, Jitesh and Natarajan - and that made it 36.92% of the total spend by the teams on day one of the auction.

That's more than a third of the total spend on just ten players.

In contrast, the top-ten overseas players went for 25% of the total spend on day one.

Clearly, a lot of teams had come in aiming to spend big on a few players and fill in the squad with budget buys later. PBKS, the team with the biggest purse coming into the auction, had this strategy. They used around 57% of their INR 110.5 purse on just three players: Shreyas, Arshdeep and Chahal.

LSG spent nearly 40% of the purse on Pant, while KKR spent more than 46% of theirs on Venkatesh. Even SRH, who came in with one of the smallest purses, were willing to fork out nearly half that on the duo of Shami and Kishan.