File image of Jitesh Sharma.© BCCI/Sportzpics
The beauty of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction lies in the fact that players from humble beginnings and backgrounds can become millionaires overnight, as billionaire owners invest to find the right fit for their team. It was much the same in the IPL 2025 auction, which ended up seeing the most money ever spent in any auction, at a whopping INR 639.15 crore. Some players ended up receiving huge increments, with wicket-keeper batter Jitesh Sharma seeing a salary hike of an incredible 5,400 percent.
Jitesh – who was bought by Punjab Kings (PBKS) for Rs 20 lakh in the IPL 2022 mega auction – was ultimately purchased for a huge sum of Rs 11 crore by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). This means that Jitesh will receive a hike of 5,400 percent from his previous IPL salary, the biggest turnover in IPL auction history.
Jitesh had originally sold to RCB for Rs 7 crore, but saw his price tag be elevated to Rs 11 cr once PBKS used the RTM option for him.
While Jitesh has seen the highest increment during the auction process, the biggest salary increment in the IPL overall went to fellow wicket-keeper batter Dhruv Jurel, who was retained by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 14 crore – a 6,900 percent increase from his previous salary of Rs 20 lakh.
The IPL 2025 mega auction saw several records broken, with the record of the most expensive buy switching from Mitchell Starc to Shreyas Iyer (Rs 26.75 cr), and then again from Iyer to Rishabh Pant (Rs 27 cr) in the space of half an hour.
Jitesh will be part of an exciting, power-packed RCB batting order in IPL 2025. Ahead of him, RCB are expected to open with Virat Kohli and new recruit Phil Salt, while the likes of Rajat Patidar and Liam Livingstone are also present.
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