Uttar Pradesh’s left-arm spinner Prashant Veer, 20, and Kartik Sharma, a 19-year-old wicketkeeper-batter from Rajasthan, hit pay dirt in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 mini-auction, as the duo walked away with a record price tag of Rs14.2 crore each. Both their values soared 47.3x from their reserve price of Rs30 lakh.
It is the highest amount ever paid for uncapped players, eclipsing the Rs10 crore Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) shelled out for pacer Avesh Khan in 2022. Veer and Sharma are also the third- and fourth-most expensive buys this auction, behind overseas players Cameron Green and Matheesha Pathirana.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) snapped up both Veer and Sharma in what is being seen as a clear departure from the franchise’s long-standing preference for experience over youth, an approach that had given them the sobriquet ‘Dad’s Army’. After finishing at the bottom of the table last season, the five-time champions appear to be signalling a reset in their quest for a turnaround.
Sharma is said to have trialled with the team in 2025 and caught their eye, while Veer, who has taken nine wickets in seven matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), the domestic T20 competition, is being seen as a replacement for Ravindra Jadeja, the India and CSK veteran who was traded to Rajasthan Royals (RR) in exchange for keeper-batter Sanju Samson.
In an auction where former internationals KS Bharat and Deepak Hooda went unsold, and Prithvi Shaw needed three rounds to find a taker at his base price, several other uncapped players, too, took home hefty paycheques. J&K’s Auqib Nabi, a formidable pacer in the domestic circuit who has picked up 15 wickets in seven matches of the ongoing SMAT with an economy of under eight, bagged Rs8.4 crore, while all-rounder Mangesh Yadav—who made his domestic debut for Madhya Pradesh, the home state for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Rajat Patidar, just two days ago—pocketed Rs5.2 crore. The former went to Delhi Capitals (DC), while RCB prevailed in a bidding battle with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for the latter.
That apart, five more uncapped Indians—wicketkeepers Tejaswi Dahiya (Rs3 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders), Mukul Choudhary (Rs2.6 crore to LSG) and Salil Arora (Rs1.5 crore to SRH), batter Akshat Raghuwanshi (Rs2.2 crore to LSG), and fast bowler Naman Tiwari (Rs1 crore to LSG)—breached the much-vaunted Rs1 crore mark.
The nine uncapped crorepatis earned a combined Rs52.3 crore, up from Rs43 crore in 2024, the year of the last mini auction, when an equal number of uncapped players had hit the mark.
Australian Cameron Green also hit a record off the field as he fetched a premium of Rs25.2 crore, the highest ever bid for an overseas player, overtaking countryman Mitchell Starc’s Rs24.75 for KKR in 2024. The all-rounder also became the third-most expensive IPL pick ever but will get to take home only Rs18 crore, a cap that has been introduced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for foreign players in mini-auctions. The surplus will be channelled by the Indian board towards player welfare.
KKR, the team which picked up Green as well as Matheesha Pathirana, the second-highest bid this auction at Rs18 crore, made good use of the Rs64.3 crore—the highest purse value this season—they entered the auction with.
First Published: Dec 17, 2025, 12:04
Subscribe Now