Dhoni, Pant, Iyer In Focus As IPL 2025 Promises Another Exhilarating Season

Dhoni, Pant, Iyer in focus as IPL 2025 promises another exhilarating season (Image Source: IANS)

Boxing Day Test: As the year 2024 culminates with ending their cricket season with an embarrassing 184-run defeat to Australia in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday, the New Year promises fans exciting and gripping matches including the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, scheduled to start on March 14 with the final slated on May 25.

Before the start of the new edition, the 10 IPL franchises went to the auction table in November to bolster their squads. With a record spending of Rs 639.15 crore, the teams added 182 players to their squads including 62 overseas players.

India wicketkeeper-batter and former Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant became the most expensive player in the history of the tournament after being bought by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for an astronomical price of Rs 27 crore while Shreyas Iyer ended as the second-most expensive player with a deal of Rs 26.75 crore from Punjab Kings.

Apart from the star duo, all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer (bought for Rs 23.75 crore by Kolkata Knight Riders), pacer Arshdeep Singh (bought for Rs 18 crore by Punjab Kings), spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (bought for Rs 18 crore by Punjab Kings), England white-ball captain Jos Buttler (bought for Rs 15.75 crore by Gujarat Titans), wicketkeeper-batter K.L. Rahul (bought for Rs 14 crore by Delhi Capitals), pacers Trent Boult, Jofra Archer and Josh Hazlewood (bought for Rs 12.50 crore each by Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, respectively) were the top buys of the two-day bidding extravaganza in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Among the uncapped players, Jammu & Kashmir pacer Rasikh Dar, who previously played for Delhi Capitals, was the most expensive buy with a price tag of Rs 6 crore. He was acquired by Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Punjab's Naman Dhir and Nehal Wadhera were bought by Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings for Rs 5.25 crore and Rs 4.20 crore, respectively.

Among others, the 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi of Bihar was signed by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 1.1 crore to become the youngest player in IPL history to get a contract.

Leaving aside the fresh inclusions, the focus will again shift to veterans including MS Dhoni before the start of the IPL 2025 season. The social media users in unison declare it the final season for the 42-year-old veteran while some expect him to play for one another season, the trend that has been going on in the last few years.

However, the five-time champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are confident of Dhoni's availability for at least IPL 2025.

Meanwhile, it will also be the first IPL season for senior campaigners - Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja - following their international retirement from the T20Is. The trio retired from the shortest format after India's T20 World Cup 2024 win in Bridgetown, Barbados. Rohit and Kohli's recent form in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series has ignited calls for their retirement from Test cricket. If the star batters hang their boots from the red-ball cricket, their participation will only be limited to ODI cricket and IPL - making it more thrilling for the fans to watch their favourite stars.

However, as of now, it is all speculation, and they will make the final decision after the conclusion of the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney. With all the possible scenarios, the IPL 2025 is surely going to be another entertaining spectacle for billions of viewers around the globe.

All squads for the IPL 2025 season:

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Matheesha Pathirana, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Rachin Ravindra, R. Ashwin, Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad, Vijay Shankar, Sam Curran, Shaik Rasheed, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary, Deepak Hooda, Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Jamie Overton, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Vansh Bedi, Andre Siddarth.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Anrich Nortje, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Umran Malik.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head, Mohammad Shami, Harshal Patel, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa, Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Brydon Carse, Kamindu Mendis, Aniket Verma, Eshan Malinga, Sachin Baby.

Punjab Kings: Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Nehal Wadhera, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Marco Jansen, Josh Inglis, Lockie Ferguson, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Kuldeep Sen, Priyansh Arya, Aaron Hardie, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Xavier Bartlett, Pyla Avinash, Pravin Dubey.

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Mitchell Starc, KL Rahul, Harry Brook, Jake Fraser-McGurk, T. Natarajan, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Mukesh Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam, Dushmantha Chameera, Donovan Ferreira, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari.

Lucknow Super Giants: Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Rishabh Pant, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Avesh Khan, Abdul Samad, Aryan Juyal, Akash Deep, Himmat Singh, M. Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Singh, Shamar Joseph, Prince Yadav, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Arshin Kulkarni, Matthew Breetzke.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee.

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Nitish Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kwena Maphaka, Kunal Rathore, Ashok Sharma.

Mumbai Indians: Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Deepak Chahar, Allah Ghazanfar, Will Jacks, Ashwani Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Reece Topley, Krishnan Shrijith, Raj Angad Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Bevon Jacobs, Arjun Tendulkar, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur.

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Nitish Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kwena Maphaka, Kunal Rathore, Ashok Sharma.

Article Source: IANS