It’s that time of the year again! The IPL mega-auction, set to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the next couple of days will witness all the 10 franchises going all out in the fiercest of bidding wars to complete their squads, atleast for the next three seasons.

Among the 10, Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, will largely dictate the narrative in the Saudi Arabia city. With a humongous purse of Rs 110.5 crore, the Punjab franchise, under new head coach Ricky Ponting, will look to build their core that could eventually help them lift a title for the first time since the inception of the league in 2008. Another franchise that has been around ever since the first edition, RCB holds the second-largest purse at Rs 83 crore.

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Another factor that could potentially be a game-changer in the auction is the Right to Match (RTM) clause which adds a whole new element of unpredictability to the auction activities. There are 14 RTM options available at the auction, with Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru holding the most, four and three respectively, which spices up the bidding contest even further.

Coming to the players, Rishabh Pant arguably could be the most sought-after name to enter into the auction, after parting ways with Delhi Capitals. While the DC owners have hinted at exercising one of their two RTM options on the star wicketkeeper-batsman, there is every chance that Pant might end up in other colours in the next edition.

This brings his equation with Ricky Ponting (former head coach at DC) into the fray, and with Punjab looking to build their squad from scratch, Pant offers them with multiple skillsets of a wicketkeeper-batter with leadership experience, a crowd favourite, and his ability to win games single-handedly. Besides Punjab, several other franchises — Royal Challengers Bangalore, Lucknow Super Giants, Kolkata Knight Riders – are on the lookout for a player with similar skill sets. As such, Pant is surely going to be one of the hot-cakes of the auction, and could eventually end up with a whopping amount in his wallet.

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have already set the bar high by retaining South African Heinrich Klassen for a whopping Rs 23 crore, and thus all eyes will be on whether some other franchise be keen on breaking the bank or breaching that mark to fetch Pant or any other player of his repute.

Besides Pant, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul are two other big names featuring in the marquee list. While there are rumours of DC already in talks for return of Iyer into their fold, it will be interesting whether the Delhi franchise with a purse of Rs 73 crore, can compete with the wealthier franchises. Shreyas, who was bought by KKR at the 2022 mega auction, the franchise staving off rival bids from four others (RCB, DC, LSG, GT) to secure his services for Rs 12.25 crore, led the side to the title in 2024, and thus will be expected to attract another fierce bidding war in Jeddah.

KL Rahul, one of the most consistent scorers in the IPL, having scored 500-plus runs in six seasons since IPL 2018, is also poised to attract fierce bidding after ending his association with the Lucknow Super Giants. A potential match-winner, a dependable wicketkeeper, and a strong captaincy material, Rahul could be a big catch for most franchises, although he has earlier dropped hints that he would be happy to return to his home franchise — RCB, where his IPL journey started in 2013.

Ishan Kishan is another big name who could offer a similar option like Pant, sans the leadership option but the Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batter could be suitable fit for a team eyeing an explosive opening batter.

Another player, who has risen from franchise cricket to becoming the leader of the attack in the shortest format for India is Arshdeep Singh. Released by the Punjab franchise, Arshdeep’s recent exploits in the T20I series in South Africa, could make him a sought-after left-arm pace option for some franchises.

Among the overseas stars, Jos Buttler, Mitchell Starc, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Jake Fraser-McGurk are some of the top names likely to attract fierce bidding among franchises. It would also be interesting to see whether any franchise would go after retired England Test great James Anderson, who registered himself for the first time for the IPL auction.

The next two days in Jeddah will answer all those questions as a total of 574 players will go under the gavel in the mega auction. Out of the 574 players, 366 are Indian and 208 are overseas, including 3 players from associate nations. The mega auction will include 318 Indian uncapped players and 12 uncapped overseas players.

A total of 204 slots will be up for grabs with 70 available slots for overseas players. Rs 2 crore is the highest base price with 81 players opting to be in the top bracket. The two-day mega auction will commence at 12:30 PM local time on Sunday.