Hazlewood tops list of Aussies sold at IPL auction

Josh Hazlewood more than doubled his IPL auction price to be the most expensive Australian buy at the first night of the 2025 IPL 'mega-auction' on Sunday night. 

Hazlewood, who had skipped last year's tournament for the birth of his first child, was snapped up by Royal Challengers Bengaluru for A$2.29 million (INR 12.5 crore) to outstrip the price for Aussie T20 teammates as nearly A$10 was spent on seven Australians at the event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabaia.

Hazlewood's price paled in comparison to the most expensive buy of the night, India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, who went for an eye-watering A$4.92m (INR 27 crore) to the Lucknow Super Giants. 

Pant's purchase broke the previous record set only a few minutes earlier when the Ricky Ponting coached Punjab Kings shelled out A$4.87m (INR 26.75 crore) for Shreyas Iyer. 

While Hazlewood was the most expensive Australian buy on the night, his A$2.29m pricetag ranks ninth overall in the all-time highest Aussie IPL purchases, behind the A$4.43m Kolkata Knight Riders shelled out for Mitchell Starc last year.

This year, Mitchell Starc was one of the first players to sell with the left-arm quick finding a new home at the Delhi Capitals for A$2.14m (INR 11.75 crore), less than half the price paid for him last year which was at the time a record.

Marcus Stoinis was sold to Ponting's Punjab Kings for A$2m (INR 11 crore) while rising star Jake Fraser-McGurk was sold to the Capitals for A$1.65m (INR 9 crore) after the franchise which he starred for last year used their right-to-match option to thwart an attempt by Ponting's Kings to steal him. 

In a remarkable rise, Fraser-McGurk gets his big payday after going unsold at last year's auction before he was eventually picked up by the Capitals for A$91,000 (INR 50 lakhs) for his first crack in the competition.

Glenn Maxwell will link up with his Melbourne Stars teammate Stoinis at the Kings after they snapped him up for A$765,000 (INR 4.2 crore) and Australia allrounder Mitchell Marsh was picked up by the Lucknow Super Giants for 3.4 crore (620,000). 

Retired from international cricket and now a T20 gun for hire, new Fox Cricket commentator David Warner went unsold in the auction.

In other top buys, England keeper-batter Jos Buttler was the most expensive non-Indian player sold at the auction, going to Gujarat Titans for A$2.88m INR 15.75 crore). Of players currently in action for India in Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia, KL Rahul was sold the Capitals for A$2.55m (INR 14 crore) and Mohammed Siraj went to the Titans for A$2.23m (INR 12.25 crore).

The auction will continue from 8.30pm on Monday night and is being shown in Australia on Kayo Sports.

It is the second time the auction has been hosted outside of India with this year's edition occurring in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

While Pat Cummins and Travis Head were retained by their Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise ahead of the auction, a total of 37 Australians are up for grabs, with 29 more names set to go under the hammer tonight. 

Australians up for auction on day 2

 

Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Ashton Turner, Tim David, Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe, Spencer Johnson, Tanveer Sangha, Steve Smith, Sean Abbott, Aaron Hardie, Matt Short, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Ellis, Jhye Richardson, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Will Sutherland, Daniel Sams, Riley Meredith, Lance Morris, Ben Dwarshuis, Chris Green, Josh Brown, Ollie Davies, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Michael Neser, Andrew Tye

In further details about the tournament's big event, the ‘mega’ auction, which is held every three to four years, forces each team to freshen up their lists with a maximum of six players permitted to be retained by each franchise. Players who are not retained can go back in the auction, although there is no guarantee of going back to their old franchise.

A stunning 574 cricketers, up 241 from last year, have made submissions for the tournament with just over six per cent coming from the Australian cohort. 366 of the player submissions are local players and 208 players will qualify as overseas imports.

Australia sits alongside England as the nations with the most players nominating outside of India with 37 while South Africa is the next best with 31. New Zealand had 24 players nominate, West Indies 22, Sri Lanka 19 and Afghanistan 18.

Ollie Davies and Josh Brown sit among 12 overseas players who have nominated but not yet played for their nation. Of the 37 Australians up for grabs in the auction beginning on Sunday, November 24 at 8:30pm (AEDT), 14 are contracted with Cricket Australia while six are without a state contract.