Two talented Mumbaikers, Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan, have decided to set their base price for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction at just Rs 75 lakh. The aggressive batters don’t want to set their starting price way too high, fearing that no one will bid for them later this month in Jeddah. Unlike Shardul Thakur or Washington Sundar, who’ve set their base price at Rs 2 crore, Prithvi and Sarfaraz have decided to play it safe.
Question mark on Sarfaraz Khan’s T20 abilities
This makes more sense for Sarfaraz. He wasn’t picked up by any team at the IPL 2024 auction. Also, he’s a capped player now, so he can’t go under Rs 50 lakh. But if most teams feared that he wasn’t a T20 player last year, what could have changed in the last 12 months? Of course, a team could very well spend Rs 75 lakh for a spare batter who represents Team India, especially towards the fag end of the mega auction when they are looking to fill the spots.
We can’t forget that IPL was one of the reasons he gained fame. Sarfaraz was exceptional in his debut season in 2015, but since then, he’s played just 37 matches in the league. His record hasn’t been great, but then again, the chances he’s gotten have been limited.
Sarfaraz Khan’s IPL stats
| Mat | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 37 | 585 | 67 | 22.5 | 130.58 | 1 |
Prithvi Shaw’s form and issues
Things are a bit different for Prithvi. He was getting paid a whopping Rs 7.5 crore by the Delhi Capitals in 2022 and 2023, but neither his performance nor his attitude justified the price for them. Apart from his on-the-field performance, there have been several issues with his conduct off the ground as well. His fitness has been a talking point for years now, and former DC head coach Ricky Ponting also talked about how he refused to bat in the nets during his slumps.
Considering all of this, Prithvi may have made a wise choice by selecting Rs 75 lakh instead of Rs 2 crore as his base price for the IPL mega auction.
IPL 2025 mega auction: Base prices
Rs 2 crore: Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan, Ishan Kishan, Mukesh Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, T Natarajan, Devdutt Padikkal, Krunal Pandya, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Mitchell Starc, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Jonny Bairstow, Kagiso Rabada, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson
Rs 1.25 crore: James Anderson
Rs 75 lakh: Sarfaraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw
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