Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer during a practice session in Dharamshala on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: R.V. MOORTHY

Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel, right, and coach Hemang Badani during the IPL T20 match against Chennai Super Kings at the Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in New Delhi on May 05, 2026.
| Photo Credit: R.V. MOORTHY

Punjab Kings’ Cooper Connolly and Prabhsimran Singh in action.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Punjab Kings’ captain Shreyas Iyer, left, with Nehal Wadhera celebrates after his half century during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 cricket match between Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad, at MYS Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, Saturday, April 11, 2026.
| Photo Credit: PTI

A tall target, the bowlers trying to take control and a tricky asking rate. It is a situation Shreyas Iyer has revelled in quite a few times, both for India and his IPL teams. It requires gumption to go on the offensive while still relying on conventional methods.

The Punjab Kings skipper yet again demonstrated why he was one of the best white-ball batters going around, striking a crucial half-century (50, 29b, 4×4, 3×6) and guiding his side to a five-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2026 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday (April 3, 2026).

In pursuit of 210, opener Priyansh Arya set the tone with a belligerent 11-ball 39. The left-hander was in equal parts exquisite and marauding. He started by executing an inch-perfect straight drive off Khaleel Ahmed and then lofted Matt Henry over his head for a six. In between, he punished the pacers whenever they erred on the shorter side by hoiking them over leg-side with disdain.

With 83 needed off 48, Shreyas took control and went after the Super Kings spinners in characteristic fashion. He went after Rahul Chahar, producing a fine inside-out lofted drive over covers and pulling a half-tracker over midwicket. Shreyas raced to his half-century off just 26 balls, smashing CSK’s thin bowling attack around the park. In the end, the visitors cantered home with eight balls to spare and climbed to the top of the table.

Earlier, Ayush Mhatre had the Chepauk faithful up on their feet as his blistering 73 (43b, 6×4, 5×6) ensured CSK posted 209 for five after being asked to bat.

Once Mhatre laid the foundation at the top, Fellow Mumbaikars Shivam Dube (45 n.o., 27b, 5×4, 1×6) and Sarfaraz Khan (32, 12b, 6×4, 1×6) provided the momentum towards the end to help their team get past 200 for the first time at home since 2024.

At 101 for one in 10 overs, the host looked set for a huge total. But Yuzvendra Chahal pulled things back through a misery spell (3-0-21-1). Despite Sarfaraz and Dube’s efforts, it was evident that the Chennai outfit ended up with less than what it would have wanted and slumped to a sixth straight defeat at its den.

Scoreboard

Chennai Super Kings

Sanju Samson c Prabhsimran b Bartlett 7 (7b, 1×4), Ruturaj Gaikwad c Wadhera b Chahal 28 (22b, 2×4), Ayush Mhatre c Chahal b Vyshak 73 (43b, 6×4, 5×6), Shivam Dube (not out) 45 (27b, 5×4, 1×6), Kartik Sharma lbw b Jansen 1 (3b), Sarfaraz Khan c Wadhera b Vyshak 32 (12b, 6×4, 1×6), Prashant Veer (not out) 6 (7b, 1×4); Extras (b-1, nb-1, w-15): 17; Total (for five wkts. in 20 overs): 209.

Fall Of Wickets

1-14 (Samson, 1.6 overs), 2-110 (Ruturaj, 11.1), 3-123 (Mhatre, 12.3), 4-130 (Kartik, 13.4), 5-168 (Sarfaraz, 16.4).

Kings Bowling

Arshdeep 4-0-41-0, Bartlett 4-0-48-1, Jansen 4-0-43-1, Vyshak 4-0-38-2, Chahal 3-0-21-1, Stoinis 1-0-17-0.

Punjab Kings

Priyansh Arya (Impact Player for Chahal) b Henry 39 (11b, 3×4, 4×6), Prabhsimran Singh run out 43 (34b, 6×4, 1×6), Cooper Connolly c Henry b Kamboj 36 (22b, 6×4), Shreyas Iyer c R. Chahar (Impact Player for Kartik) b Kamboj 50 (29b, 4×4, 3×6), Nehal Wadhera c Noor b Henry 10 (9b, 1×6), Shashank Singh (not out) 14 (6b, 2×4), Marcus Stoinis (not out) 9 (3b, 2×4); Extras (lb-1, nb-2, w-6): 9; Total (for five wkts. in 18.4 overs): 210.

Fall Of Wickets

1-61 (Priyansh, 4.2), 2-95 (Prabhsimran, 8.5), 3-127 (Connolly, 11.5), 4-186 (Shreyas, 16.6), 5-186 (Wadhera, 17.1).

Punjab Kings Bowling

Khaleel 3-0-28-0, Henry 4-0-54-2, Kamboj 3.4-0-43-2, Noor 4-0-38-0, R. Chahar 4-0-46-0; Toss: Kings; PoM: Priyansh. PBKS won by five wickets with eight balls to spare.

Published – April 03, 2026 07:54 pm IST

India’s Shreyas Iyer, plays a shot, during the India vs Australia 5th T20 match, at M Chinnaswamy stadium (KSCA), in Bengaluru on December 03, 2023.
| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

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Cricket’s commercial behemoth, the IPL, raised the bar once again, generating eye-popping bids for the likes of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer besides providing the opportunity of a lifetime to first-timers including 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi.

The mega auction’s venue, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, also added to the growing global appeal of the league as 182 players were sold over the two-day event.

PTI looks at how the 10 teams stack up following a memorable auction.

Delhi Capitals: Delhi Capitals, who surprisingly let go of their marquee player Pant, bought 19 players in the auction after retaining four including Axar Patel, Jake Fraser McGurk, Kuldeep Yadav and Abhishek Porel.

At ₹14 crore, their most expensive buy was KL Rahul who will be expected to open the batting alongside Fraser McGurk.

There is no denying the class of Rahul but his strike rate has come under the scanner season after season. It remains to be seen if he ends up leading the franchise.

Their playing composition looks sorted but they don’t have a lot of proven back up players in the middle-order.

The fast bowling has been bolstered with the arrival of Mitchell Starc and T Natarajan while the front-line spinners include the retained Axar and Kuldeep.

Mumbai Indians: Having spent a majority of their purse on five retained players including Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma, the five-time champions have their Indian core all figured out.

Considering Mumbai spent ₹75 crore for their retentions, they were relatively quiet on day one of the auction before going for established fast bowlers on the concluding day.

Their biggest buy was New Zealand veteran Trent Boult (₹12.5), followed by injury-prone Deepak Chahar (₹9.25 crore).

The team has brought in English batter Will Jacks to offset Tim David’s departure. Following Ishan Kishan’s departure, the franchise doesn’t have a proven force to open alongside Rohit Sharma.

South African Ryan Rickelton is set to open the batting alongside the World Cup winning skipper.

Lucknow Super Giants: LSG purchased 19 players in the auction after retaining five including Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan and Ayush Badoni.

They were the ones who made a record bid of ₹27 crore for Rishabh Pant who is set to captain the franchise.

Pant was by far their costliest buy with Avesh Khan (₹9.75 crore) and Akash Deep (₹8 crore) a distant second and third respectively. The likely opening pairing of Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram is not the strongest in the competition, putting more responsibility on Pant and Pooran.

The fitness of their retained pacers Mohsin and Mayank over the course of 14 games also poses questions.

Rajasthan Royals: Royals were not the busiest team at the auction, having bought 14 players to go with its six retentions, the joint highest alongside KKR.

The retained players included five batters and only one bowler in Sandeep Sharma, therefore it wasn’t a surprise they tried to shore up that department.

Their most expensive buy at the auction — Jofra Archer at ₹12.5 crore — was a questionable one with perennial questions surrounding his fitness.

Royals would be hoping that he lives up to the potential come IPL 2025.

They let go of their star Indian spinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin, leaving a huge void, which is now expected to be filled by Sri Lankans Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga. Like Archer, even Hasaranga is injury-prone.

Also under the spotlight would be Suryavanshi, the 13-year-old batter from Bihar. He might not start the tournament but could get an opportunity down the line. He made his first-class debut at the age of 12, a testament to his rare talent.

Punjab Kings: Having retained just two uncapped players, Punjab Kings expectedly went on a shopping spree and ended up buying 23 players to hit the upper limit of squad size. The biggest buy was IPL-winning captain Shreyas Iyer at ₹26.75 crore and in all likelihood, he will lead the side.

Having under-performed consistently since IPL’s inception, Punjab are banking on new head coach Ricky Ponting for a much awaited change in fortunes.

Besides Arshdeep Singh, they don’t have an established Indian fast bowler, leaving a lot for New Zealander Lockie Ferguson and all-rounders Marcus Stoinis and Marco Jansen.

Spin duties will be shared by Chahal and Harpreet Brar. Young Delhi batter Priyansh Arya also fetched a life changing contract from Punjab Kings and would be desperate for an opportunity.

Kolkata Knight Riders: KKR bought 15 players at the auction and their most debatable purchase was Venkatesh Iyer at a whopping ₹23.75 crore.

The team benefitted from his ultra aggressive approach with the bat last season when it captured its third title.

KKR retained majority of the performers last season but will be interesting to see who captains the side following Iyer’s improbable exit. Venkatesh could be a potential captain if KKR decide to name an Indian leader.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Like KKR, SRH also impressed with their approach in the previous edition and ended up retaining their core including Abhishek Sharma, Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Nitish Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen.

The Cummins led side was able to get the players they wanted at a good price and they included Ishan Kishan (₹11.25 crore), Mohammed Shami (₹10 crore), Harshal Patel (₹8 crore) and Adam Zampa (₹2.40 crore).

They also have decent back up for Indian pacers and Rahul Chahar is another effective leg-spin option alongside Zampa.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: RCB retained three players — Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal and Rajat Patidar — leaving them with a lot to do at the auction. They did not have a very productive opening day but caught up on day two. Fast bowling has been the weaker link for RCB over the years and they have tried to fix that with signing of Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

The heavy English flavour to the squad is provided by Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell and Phillp Salt. Their superstar, Kohli, could be seen captaining the unit once again as RCB chase the elusive crown.

Gujarat Titans: After retaining five players, Gujarat bought 20 players to reach the maximum squad limit. The buying featured plenty of fast bowlers including Kagiso Rabada, Gerald Coetzee, Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma and Prasidh Krishna.

Jos Buttler was one headline buy and he is expected to open alongside skipper Shubman Gill.

The middle-order doesn’t posses the firepower possessed by other teams, putting the onus on retained Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan.

Chennai Super Kings: CSK are known for their value buys at the auction and tend to go after the players they were unable to retain. Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise to see Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra being bought back for ₹6.25 crore and ₹4 crore respectively. The other bargain buys included Sam Curran (₹2.40 crore) and Rahul Tripathi (₹3.40 crore).

R Ashwin’s return to CSK attracted most attention as he went for ₹9.75 crore.

Here is the list of sold and unsold players at the Indian Premier League 2025 mega auction in Jeddah.

IPL 2025 mega auction Day 1 LIVE

The sold players list are given franchise-wise.

Sold players

Chennai Super Kings

Noor Ahmad, Ravichandran Ashwin, Devon Conway, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar

Delhi Capitals

K.L. Rahul, Mitchell Starc, T. Natarajan, Jake Fraser-Mcgurk, Harry Brook, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair.

Gujarat Titans

Jos Buttler, Mohammad Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mahipal Lomror, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Anuj Rawat, Nishant Sindhu

Kolkata Knight Riders

Venkatesh Iyer, Anrich Nortje, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande

Lucknow Super Giants

Rishabh Pant, Avesh Khan, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad, Mitchell Marsh, Aryan Juyal

Mumbai Indians

Trent Boult, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma

Punjab Kings

Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell. Nehal Wadhera, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod

Rajasthan Royals

Jofra Archer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Meesh Theekshana, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya Singh

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Ishan Kishan, Mohammad Shami, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa, Abhinav Manohar, Simarjeet Singh, Atharva Taide

Unsold players

Devdutt Padikkal, David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Waqar Salamkheil, Yash Dhull, Anmolpreet Singh, Piyush Chawla, Kartik Tyagi, Utkarsh Singh, Luvnith Sisodia, Upendra Singh Yadav, Shreyas Gopal.

IPL Auction. Image used for representation
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Off the Red Sea, Jeddah — the second-largest city of Saudi Arabia — is considered the gateway to the holy city of Mecca. Over the next two days, however, the Benchmark Arena will not only put the nation on the cricketing map, but also end up being the gateway to riches for a plethora of cricketers.

A total of 577 cricketers — legends and lesser-known names — will hope to draw the franchises’ attention during the annual bidding fiesta called the IPL Player Auction.

As the franchise entourages descended on the port city, indications are that it will be the grandest auction — not just metaphorically — of the 18 auctions held in the history of the Indian Premier League.

Also Read: Ben Stokes missing from IPL’s list of 1,574 players ahead of mega auction

Not only because it will have the largest-ever purse — ₹641.50 crore this time around (in the last full auction in 2022, it was ₹561.50 crore) — but also because of the presence of some of the biggest names in the auction list.

The field is usually deprived of marquee Indian names, due to the IPL retention policy. This time around, however, it is different.

Rishabh Pant, K.L. Rahul and Shreyas Iyer — who lifted the IPL trophy as KKR captain last year — will feature in the IPL Auction. Add to the list the likes of Faf du Plessis and Sam Curran, and it will be the first instance of the previous season’s five captains going under the hammer.

With the presence of the Indian trio — along with Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj — it will be interesting to see if Mitchell Starc’s highest auction bid of ₹24.75 crore will be breached this time around.

With two franchises — Punjab Kings (₹110.50 crore) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (₹83 crore) — in possession of massive purses, it’s all but certain that many marquee names will take home huge pay cheques.

RTM’s modified avatar

The two-day auction will be made even more interesting with the return of the Right to Match (RTM) option in a modified avatar.

If a player’s existing franchise exercises the RTM option, the one with the highest bid will be given an option to inflate the bid according to its choice.

While the franchises are planning to use the incremental bid judiciously, it will be interesting to see if an uncapped player, especially, benefits immensely due to the incremental bid.

Saurashtra player Cheteshwar Pujara during a practice session at Sri Ramakrishna College cricket grounds in Coimbatore on Thursday, ahead of the Ranji Trophy match against Tamil Nadu from Friday.
| Photo Credit: Periasamy M

Ranji Trophy has an old-world charm and a present-day purpose. It is a tournament with a 90-year history, is played in Test whites with a red cherry, at grounds quaint and modern, across the length and breadth of this gigantic country.

It also occupies a prime position in the supply chain that feeds Indian cricket, especially the longer format. The sheer number of runs a batter scores or the bucketload of wickets a bowler takes are impossible to ignore, as seen recently in the ascent of Mumbai’s Sarfaraz Khan, Madhya Pradesh’s Rajat Patidar and the Bengal pace duo of Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep.

From Friday, hundreds of cricketers will take the field with these very hopes as this year’s edition begins with 38 teams split across the Elite and Plate divisions. Old warhorses like Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha and Cheteshwar Pujara, the red and white-ball straddlers like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, and a battery of young and fledgling cricketers will be eager to show their worth.

But their first test will be to deal with the competition’s tweaked format this season. To ensure that matches, especially in northern and eastern India, aren’t disrupted by the winter fog, Ranji Trophy has been split into two phases, with the first five rounds running until November 16, and the last two rounds and the knockouts slated to begin from January 23, 2025.

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20) and Vijay Hazare Trophy (50 overs) will be sandwiched in between, presenting a unique challenge of switching from red ball to white and back to red in a short time. Where players will get a respite, however, is in the spacing between games. Against the standard three-day gap in 2023-24, the break is set to progressively increase this time around.

Among the biggest beneficiaries will be the fast bowlers. With India set to tour Australia for a gruelling five-Test series beginning November 22, pacers are prized commodities. The form and fitness of the lanky Karnataka speedster Prasidh Krishna will be keenly observed while it remains to be seen if Mohammed Shami, who hasn’t played since the 2023 World Cup final against Australia because of an ankle injury, chooses a Ranji game for Bengal to mark his competitive return.

It is said that Ranji Trophy is more followed than watched. The fact that it runs parallel to the Indian national team’s home season means players will be forced to compete for attention. But importance and relevance are not something the tournament lacks. It is like a timeless piece of art that doesn’t need repeated explanations.