The next set will consist of explosive batters who were surprisingly not retained by their respective franchises.

List of batters to go under the hammer next: Harry Brook, Devon Conway, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aiden Markram, Devdutt Padikkal, Rahul Tripathi, and David Warner.

Whoa!!

What an exciting two hours it has been with records getting broken and a surprisingly low bid for KL Rahul, who will be crowned as the new DC skipper and cost a meagre 14 Crores.

Surprisingly, RCB was the first to bow out of the race for their former player as KKR and DC kept the bidding process moving up to 12.5 Crores till CSK stepped in to challenge DC for the wicket-keeper batter.

Expectedly, LSG decided not to use their RTM on KL Rahul, with the Capitals bagging the batter for 14 Crores.

KKR and RCB started a slow-burn process of bidding for KL Rahul who has recently revived his Test career with a brilliant half-century in Perth.

The former Lucknow Super Giants skipper was of huge demand in the two aforementioned camps as they breached the 10 Crore mark without allowing any other side to enter the proceedings.

A useful multi-faceted player, Liam Livingstone attracted bids from RCB and SRH before Kavya Maran & co. bowed out of the bidding war.

DC escalated the price up to 6.5 Crores before CSK entered the fray and breached the 8 Crore mark and PBKS didn't exercise the RTM option as well allowing RCB to bag the English all-rounder for a price of 8.75 Crores.

After dismissing Pat Cummins earlier in the day, Mohammad Siraj attracted bids from GT and CSK as Stephen Fleming and Ashish Nehra saw value in the player till 8 Crores as CSK bowed out of the bidding war.

RR once again tried to strengthen their bowling attack but could only bid till 12 Crores due to the limited availability of purse and RCB decided not to use the RTM option as well.

Siraj eventually went to GT for 12.25 Crores.

Chahal's former team RCB decided to repent for the mistakes of the last mega-auction as they tried to bid once for the wrist-spinner before SRH submitted a bid of 14.75 Crores but PBKS didn't back down from any challenge and breached the 17 Crore mark with confidence.

SRH lacked a quality spinner in the last season, and the Hyderabad-based franchise was adamant on fixing that issue as they submitted a bid of 17.75 Crores, but PBKS bid 18 Crores in response bagging the Haryana spinner.

CSK then bowed out, allowing PBKS to come in and rival GT for the ICC T20 World Cup winner with LSG later joining the bid party as well.

The 14 Crore mark was breached by PBKS and LSG trying to one-up each other as Ricky Ponting seemed adamant on working with the wrist-spinner, as did Zaheer Khan.

The wrist-spinner with most wickets in IPL history was the next name on the list as GT and CSK started the bidding war breaching the 5 Crore mark in an instant.

The only player in the marquee set with a base price of 1.5 Crores saw RCB and GT battle it out for the South African batting maestro as another player breached the 5 Crore mark with ease before the Titans bowed out of the race.

DC then entered the fray and escalated the price beyond 7 Crores before pulling out of the bidding war. LSG was the next to come in as they bid 7.5 Crores for Miller.

GT once again decided to not use the RTM option as Miller ended up with LSG.

The fit-again Mohammad Shami is the first name out of the bag as KKR and CSK begin the bidding process swiftly crossing the 8 Crore mark without any second thoughts.

CSK bowed out after KKR's bid of 8.25 Crores allowing LSG to come in at 8.5 Crores but they bowed out even before reaching the 10 Crore mark.

SRH then entered the bidding war at 10 Crores and GT refused to exercise the RTM option.

The next marquee set consists of KL Rahul, Yuzvendra Chahal, David Miller, Liam Livingstone, Mohammad Shami, and Mohammad Siraj. Will KL Rahul or Chahal break Pant's record?

SRH bowed out of the bidding war allowing LSG to bag Pant at 20.75 Crores but the Delhi Capitals responded by using the RTM option.

LSG then raised their bid to 27 Crores and DC decided not to use the RTM option at that price.

End of the first marquee set and the IPL record has been broken twice by the two former Delhi Capitals teammates as Pant has now bagged a bumper amount of 27 Crores by Lucknow Super Giants.

RCB and LSG continue their exchange before the Royal Challengers bowed out allowing SRH to come in at 11.5 Crores.

A bidding battle between Kavya Maran and Sanjeev Goenka saw the wicket-keeper batter's price go beyond 20 Crores.

Rishabh Pant's name and image was enough for the crowd in Jeddah to go mad as LSG and RCB started a rapid-fire bidding war breaching the 9 Crores mark in an instant.

Will Iyer's record get broken or will it stand at the end of this bid?

KKR and DC seem equally adamant about getting the Australian speedster, but KKR bowed out, allowing RCB to bid for their former player but DC eventually bagged him for a price of 11.75 Crores.

KKR once again went for one of their former players after deciding not to retain them but MI wanted Mitchell Starc badly before giving up at the 6 Crore mark.

DC then decided to join the bidding for the highest-paid player in IPL history before Iyer broke his record moments ago. Will Starc take back his record with multiple sides interested?

RR and GT get involved in a rapid-fire bidding process before the Royals bowed out at 9.5 Crores, allowing PBKS to swoop in and submit their bid, breaching the 12 Crore mark as GT seemed adamant on getting the white-ball superstar from England.

After PBKS bowed out, LSG entered the fray raising the amount beyond 15.5 Crores even making the GT think tank ponder for a second before they bid 15.75 Crores and pocketed Jos the Boss.

DC enters the fray at 7.5 Crores, and Iyer's two former sides get involved in an intense bidding war before KKR pulls the plug on the deal.

DC and PBKS then started yet another to-and-fro, which escalated Iyer's price to 15 Crores as the Capitals seemed desperate to get their former skipper back in the camp.

The two sides didn't seem to give up as the 20 Crore mark was breached for the first time on the day, and the player finally ended up in the Kings' camp for a price of 26.75 Crores as PBKS spent more than 1/5th of their total purse on their new skipper.

A NEW IPL RECORD scripted by Shreyas Iyer and Punjab Kings as the former DC and KKR skipper becomes the highest-paid player in IPL history.

Shreyas Iyer has become the first Indian to cross the INR 20 Cr mark in the auction.

Former DC and KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer attracted the first bid from KKR who interestingly decided not to retain him ahead of the auction.

PBKS and KKR then decided to go hard for the player crossing the 7.25 Crore mark with no other team coming in so far for the Mumbai batter.

Another former Punjab Kings fast bowler is up next as RCB bids 2 Crores for the Proteas speedster. GT and RCB go hammer and tongs for the first overseas player of the day and breach the 5 Crore mark in an instant.

After RCB bowed out, Mumbai Indians expressed an interest in Rabada and took it to 10.25 Crores in an intense three-way bidding war between GT, RCB, and MI.

GT has the final bid at 10.75 Crores and PBKS decided not to exercise the 'Right to Match' option.

RR then stole the march at the 12.5 Crore mark as GT bowed out, but Sunrisers Hyderabad entered the fray and breached the 15 Crore mark in an intense bidding war with RR.

SRH finally had the player at 15.75 Crores, but Punjab Kings exercised the 'Right to Match' option, forcing SRH to up their bid to INR 18 Crores, but Punjab Kings managed to retain their homegrown player at a premium amount.

Mallika Sagar begins the proceedings by inviting the incumbent ICC Chairperson Jay Shah to the stage and picks out Arshdeep Singh's name.

Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals start a bidding war breaching the 7 Crore mark in an instant. After CSK bowed out, Gujarat Titans and DC took it to 10 Crores before DC bowed out.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru then entered the frame but GT wasn't relenting as Rajasthan Royals started bidding after RCB management seemed unsure about the player.

And we kick off the proceedings in Jeddah. After IPL Chairman Arun Singh Dhumal completes his speech, the first marquee set will be unveiled for the franchises.

The first marquee set consists of three explosive batters and potential captaincy options: Jos Buttler, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant would be accompanied by three world-class quicks: Kagiso Rabada, Mitchell Starc, and Arshdeep Singh.

Seems like Jeddah wasn't exactly ready, as the start of the IPL 2025 Mega-Auction has been delayed by a few minutes and will start shortly.

While certain teams like Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals have focussed on keeping together their Indian core of players, Sunrisers Hyderabad decided to retain three overseas players, including their skipper Pat Cummins.

We are a mere five minutes away from the mega-auction. Will we witness a new record bid today? Will the 30 Crore mark get breached for the first time?

With the mega-auction inching closer, the first day of the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was almost like an audition for many players.

Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Himmat Singh, Hardik Pandya, and Yuzvendra Chahal shone the brightest, aiding their respective sides to kick off the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Many teams, including Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Punjab Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, and possibly Lucknow Super Giants would be looking for their new skipper in Jeddah.

With Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Steve Smith, David Warner, and Jos Buttler in the mix, the franchises would have plenty of options to choose from in their search of a new captain.

A total of 46 players have been retained by the 10 franchises with Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders using all six of their retentions while Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru have retained only 2 and 3 players respectively.

Going into the auction, many franchises including defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders vouched for the Right to Match options to be made available for the mega-auction.

However, the BCCI and the IPL committee decided to put a spin on the RTM option, via which the team that had put in the last bid for a player before the RTM option was exercised would be allowed to raise the amount once more.

Many franchises, including KKR, weren't happy with the new twist and decided to use up all of their retentions leaving them with no RTM option.

A total of 204 slots have to be filled up across the board by the ten franchises but only 84 players would be going under the hammer on Day 1 of the IPL 2025 Auction in Jeddah.

Out of these 84 players, the first 12 marquee players, divided into two sets of six players each would attract the most amount of attention and possibly, the most amount of money as well.