Rishabh Pant Signs for Lucknow Super Giants: The wicket-keeper batsman has become the most expensive player of the Indian Premier League history.
Rishabh Pant has broken all records of players by being the costliest of the Indian Premier League (IPL) so far. Indian cricketer and wicketkeeper dominated every team auction and was finally signed by Lucknow Super Giants for a whopping ₹27 crores at the IPL mega auction held recently in Saudi Arabia. His former team Delhi Capitals also went full throttle in the bidding war before he was finally picked up by Lucknow.
Pant is coming back into the league after suffering a serious car accident that saw him being out of the league for 14 months. He broke the previous record held of Shreyas Iyer who became part of Punjab Kings for ₹26.75 crore worth of base price earlier in the day.
Other large signings include Australian bowler Mitchell Starc who was bought by Delhi Capitals for ₹11.75 crore way below his ₹24.75 crore price tag last year in KKR.
England cricket’s white-ball captain Jos Butler has been signed by Gujarat Titans for ₹ 15.75 crores, while a Liam Livingstone was sold for ₹ 8.75 crores to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Harry Brook was again retained by Delhi Capitals at a bid of ₹6.25 crore after he missed the 2024 IPL season due to personal issues.
Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab retained Royal Stokes and Glenn Maxwell respectively while Chennai Super Kings bought back spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for ₹ 9.75 crores. The team also listed New Zealand players Devon Conway for ₹6.25 crore and Rachin Ravindra for ₹4 crores.
Some of the big money that were spent on were Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis who went for ₹4.2 crore and ₹11 crore with Punjab Kings. In the same respect, Delhi Capitals bought Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk for ₹9 crore, having performed well last season.
Only October retentions have been followed by building the teams, and the second mega auction of the IPL is yet to come. More big-ticket deals are expected in the next few weeks as the auction action heats up for the forthcoming season.
