Top XI of the most formidable teams How all ten teams performed at the IPL auction: CSK, MI, dark horse PBKS, and "same" old KKR

We examine how each franchise stacks up, their best starting lineup, and which team appears to be the greatest on paper after the IPL 2025 auction.

Over the course of the two days of the IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah, 577 players were put up for auction. All 10 teams spent a total of INR 639.15 crore, and 182 of them signed new contracts, 62 of which are abroad. After the big event, we examine how each franchise compares, their best IPL 2025 lineup, and which team appears to be the strongest.

Chennai Super Kings
CSK carried out their routine tasks, but in a new way. In contrast to past occasions, the first day of the massive auction essentially molded their team as they made investments to bring back some of their key players and some familiar faces. Similar to recent years, the emphasis was on assembling a long batting lineup, accurately bringing in more all-rounders, and having adequate backup for every position. The five-time champions made significant investments in Indian uncapped fast bowlers after letting go of Deepak Chahar and ignoring Shardul Thakur.

Recovering Sam Curran for INR 2.40 crore could end up being a good bargain. He can effectively assist Matthesa Pathirana in the final overs in addition to providing diversity to the batting lineup. Noor Ahmad, Afghanistan's sole attacking spinner in the lineup, was also purchased by CSK. And Nathan Ellis of Australia, who can also bowl late, may take his position on non-turning tracks.

Best playing XII: MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Matheesha Pathirana, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Deepak Hooda, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi/Vijay Shankar, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Noor Ahmad/Nathan Ellis.

The Delhi Capitals
During the two days in Jeddah, Delhi acquired some well-known players, including Mitchell Starc, Faf du Plessis, T Natarajan, and KL Rahul. Getting Rahul for INR 14 crore, which is not more than INR 20 crore like it was for Rishabh Pant (INR 27 crore) or Shreyas Iyer (INR 26.75 crore), likely made them the happiest. Axar Patel is the only all-round player in their lineup. This implies that it might become an issue all season long unless they are able to break the Impact Player restriction. Additionally, they lack a seasoned backup for Natarajan, Starc, or Kuldeep Yadav.

Creating batting firepower around Rahul with the addition of Jake Fraser-McGurk, Harry Brook and Tristan Stubbs, will allow the India star to easily resolve to his natural anchor-style game. Additionally, they strengthened their speed lineup by adding two Indian alternatives, Mohit Sharma and Mukesh Kumar, and two left-arm bowlers, Starc and Natarajan.

Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Harry Brook, Abhishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Jake Fraser-McGurk/Faf du Plessis, and KL Rahul were the best players in the second team.

Kolkata Knight Riders
"They went safter the wrong Iyer" was the appropriate way to describe KKR's performance. It was said by former India batsman Sanjay Bangar at the end of the first day in Jeddah.

In order to keep the core group, Kolkata's approach was the same: they bought back their former players. And they did, hiring Vaibhav Arora, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi in addition to spending an astounding INR 23.75 crore on Venkatesh Iyer. They were unable to obtain an upgrade, though, as they let go of Phil Salt and Starc, respectively, and instead settled with Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje/Spencer Johnson.

The most important question, though, is still who will lead KKR in the future. Is it Rinku Singh or Venkatesh Iyer?

Given that De Kock is no longer a formidable force in the T20 format and that KKR has a weak middle order, Venkatesh will be under a lot of pressure going forward, not only because of the high price tag but also because the entire batting load would be on his shoulders.

Angrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sunil Narine, and Venkatesh Iyer were the best players in the XII.

Titans of Gujarat
In an auction, Gujarat Titans conduct themselves in a low-key manner. On paper, they have one of the strongest teams, yet they never really attract much attention. Gujarat was able to assemble a potent and powerful batting lineup this time. For a total of just INR 6.8 crore, they acquired a number of talented all-round players, including Glenn Phillips, Sherfane Rutherford, and Washington Sundar. They also have a lot of left-hand batsmen and left-arm spin options, so they can occasionally try new things without worrying about the fundamentals of T20 cricket squad construction.
 
Gujarat's bowling attack, which might not appear as dangerous, will be their primary concern. Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, and Kagiso Rabada make constitute a strong pace group, although none of them are T20 experts. Rabada will resume his death-over responsibilities despite being out of form the previous season, and they will rely on Siraj and Krishna with the new ball.

Best XII: Sherfane Rutherford/Glenn Phillips, Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler, Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Shahrukh Khan, Mahipal Lomror, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, and Arshad Khan

Lucknow Super Giants

The signing of Rishabh Pant for a record price of INR 27 crore was the only noteworthy event over the two days of the auction for the Lucknow Super Giants LSG. In the end, they were able to assemble one of the most formidable middle-order lineups, despite having unproven backups. However, they neglected to address their dearth of frontline opening alternatives, and Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram are probably going to be chosen for the position.  

Lucknow Super Giants
Although they lack experience with backups, their main advantage is an all-Indian bowling lineup that will enable them to devote all 

of their foreign resources to the batting lineup. As a result, LSG will only use their starting lineup, and they expect to stay injury-free all season.

Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, and Rishabh Pant are the members of the Best XII.

Mumbai Indians
The Mumbai Indians hardly moved throughout the first five hours of the auction before selecting Trent Boult as their first player. They only bought three things on the first day, and they had the second-largest purse going into the last day. However, after they made significant acquisitions of Will Jacks, Deepak Chahar, and Allah Ghazanfar, the squad appeared to be the strongest on paper.

Mumbai currently has a formidable batting lineup with Will Jacks, but their greatest strength is in the pace department, which includes Hardik Pandya and frontline alternatives Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, and Trent Boult.

MI will mostly rely on unproven and untested Robin Minz, who played just two T20 matches in his career, to fire because they lack a suitable finisher to assist Hardik. Additionally, their backups are a little bit lacking.

Hardik Pandya, Robin Minz, Deepak Chahar, Mitchell Santner, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Allah Ghazanfar, Will Jacks, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Naman Dhir, and Rohit Sharma make up the best XII.

Punjab Kings
Was this the best auction performance by the Punjab Kings? Despite keeping only two players, they did have the largest purse in the auction, which, on the other hand, may frequently distract a team due to the abundance of options. However, they appeared to be a cohesive team with a purpose ever since they acquired Shreyas Iyer for INR 26.75. In order to create a formidable Indian bowling lineup, they recruited Yuzvendra Chahal and Arshdeep Singh. Later, they acquired all-rounders Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, and Marcos Jansen, suggesting that they might have a long batting order. Along with adding a couple backup fast bowlers in Lockie Ferguson and Xavier Bartlett, Punjab also bolstered their team with capable backup all-rounders for Jansen in Azmatullah Omarzai and Aaron Hardie.

Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis, Shreyas Iyer, Glenn Maxwell, Ashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marco Jansen, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, and Prabhsimran Singh make up the best XII.

Rajasthan Royals

It was obvious that Rajasthan would go heavy on bowlers because they had only kept one pacer and five hitters. Jofra Archer and Wanindu Hasaranga were their two noteworthy acquisitions, but considering how prone they are to injuries, it might seem like a bit of a risk for Rajasthan. They do, however, have respectable backups in Akash Madhwal, who was sort of establishing himself as a death-over specialist with the Mumbai Indians the previous season, and Afghanistan's Fazalhaq Farooqui, who replaces Trent Boult. Not to be overlooked, RR selected Maheesh Theekshana, another spinner from Sri Lanka, who is prepared to start in the starting XI.

With no capped Indian in the pace department, Rajasthan's biggest worries will be unproven backups and a lack of bite.

Best XII: Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma, Akash Madhwal, Maheesh Theekshana, Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Sanju Jaiswal.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru 
Over the course of the two days of the auction, CB received the greatest criticism, with experts being perplexed by some, if not all, of their tactics. They did not utilize their RTMs to re-sign Maxwell, Siraj, Jacks, or du Plessis, nor did they make a strong push for KL Rahul. Ultimately, though, Bengaluru was able to assemble a well-rounded team that might not rely on a select few individuals.

With Salt at the top of the order and Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, and Tim David in the middle, followed by Krunal Pandya, they have a potent batting lineup. They then spent INR 10.25 crore to sign Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who will play alongside Yash Dayal and Josh Hazlewood in the pace lineup.

Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar, Jitesh Sharma, Tim David/Jacob Bethell, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, and Virat Kohli are the players in the best XII.

Sunrisers Hyderabad
The best retention rate was exhibited by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). However, one unresolved matter causes them great concern. The Indian strong bowling lineup will aid them, and they strengthened their batting with the acquisition of Ishan Kishan and Abhinav Manohar, sticking to the same plan that enabled them break their lengthy run of disappointing IPL performances. However, the No. 7 problem will probably follow them around all season long, suggesting that they will heavily rely on the Impact Player rule.

Best XII: Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Adam Zampa, Heinrich Klaasen, Sachin Baby, Abhinav Manohar, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Harshan Patel.