Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opener Shubman Gill has impressed most with his stylish batting. In the previous encounter against Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. The 22-year-old scored 48 off just 34 balls and helped his side secure a convincing 9-wicket win over the opponent. 

Also Read: IPL 2021: Who can be the next RCB captain?

Gill has been a regular face in the KKR setup. However, in a fun interaction with India women cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues on the FanCode app, the KKR batter gave fans an insight into his batting inspiration.

During the chat, Gill was asked to pick one between India's two prolific batters - Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli - to which he answered "Sachin sir".

Gill during the conversation said he would prefer to bat with Sachin. Although, when the stakes were raised slightly high, Gill made an exception in this case. When asked to pick between playing football with Pairs Saint-Germain forward Neymar or opening the innings with Tendulkar. However, the 22-year-old doesn't choose the former. 

Meanwhile, Gill, who was part of India's U-19 World Cup team which won the tournament in 2018. Also rates the win in Australia earlier this year higher than his U-19 triumph. Explaining his decision, Gill said: "beating Australia in Australia twice in a row was much bigger for India."  He was India's highest run-scorer in the U-19 World Cup in 2018, emerging to be one of the key players from the Prithvi Shaw-led unit.  

Gill so far in IPL 2021 second leg :

Read Also: IPL 2021 Points Table: The battle for the top four continues

Gill has so far managed to accumulate just 193 runs in the nine matches so far in IPL. However, his knock in the previous encounter against RCB showed signs of him being in good touch. Although, he fails to deliver against MI yesterday.

India beat Prime Minister XI in the IND vs AUS PM XI 2-day practice match at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. The first day's play could not be played on Saturday (30 November) due to rain and on Day 2, the game was reduced to 46 overs per side.

A five-Test series is being played between IND vs AUS. Team India won the first match of this series by 295 runs. The Indian team is currently leading 1-0 in this series. The next match is to be played in Adelaide. This match will be played with pink ball in day-night format. Team India is preparing for this match.

To strengthen its hold in the Pink Ball Test, the Indian team played a two-day practice match against Australia's Prime Minister's XI. Where the India defeated PM XI in a one-sided manner. Team India won this match by 6 wickets.

Also Read: Border–Gavaskar Trophy: India's record in Pink Ball Test

The first day of the practice match played between IND vs AUS PM XI was washed out due to rain. Due to this, the match was played with some new rules on the second day. Where both the teams got a chance to bat 46-46 overs. Whichever team scores the most runs wins.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss in this match and decided to bowl first. After which the team of Prime Minister XI came on the field to bat first. His team was all out on the score of 240 runs in 43.2 overs.

For that, 19-year-old batsman Sam Konstas scored 107 runs. Harshit Rana took a maximum 4 wickets for India.

In reply, the Indian team played a full 46 overs and scored 257 runs at the loss of 5 wickets. India's score was higher than Australia's. Due to which Team India was declared the winner of this match. 

Gill scored a brilliant half-century 

Returning from injury, Shubman Gill scored a brilliant half-century in this match. He retired after playing an innings of 50 runs in 62 balls. Before this, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was out after scoring 45 runs. His partner KL Rahul added 27 runs. Captain Rohit Sharma's bat did not work. He could score only 3 runs.

Young Nitish Reddy once again impressed with his batting and scored an inning of 42 runs in 32 balls. Washington Sundar remained unbeaten after scoring 42 runs. Devdutt Padikkal returned unbeaten on 4 runs. Sarfaraz Khan was out on 1 run while Ravindra Jadeja scored 27 runs.

Indian men's cricket team will play a single day of match practice with the pink ball to prepare for the Adelaide's day-night Test after Saturday's play against the Prime Minister's XI was abandoned due to rain at the Canberra's Manuka Oval. India were supposed the play a two-day practice match. But, it is now reduced to a single-day match due to rain.

The men in blue were hoping to get going with the preparation for the pink ball test match after dismantaling the Aussie team in the first test at Perth. However, the Indian test captain Rohit Sharma arrived late and along with him, Shubman Gill, who was injured in the first test, were keen to get some practice match before the second test.

Rohit did have some go in the nets against the Indian bowlers while Shubman Gill had a great traninig session at Canberra after returning from the thumb injury.

Shubman Gill hits the nets for the first time since his thumb injury that forced him to miss the Perth Test.

Here’s how the star batter is shaping up! #TeamIndia | #AUSvIND | @ShubmanGill pic.twitter.com/sZtbvQhgLn— BCCI (@BCCI) November 29, 2024

"It was my first day (training) and I just wanted to get a feel to see how the injury is reacting, if there was any jarring or soreness.

"It actually went much better than I expected and I'm very happy with that," Shubman Gill told the BCCI media after the training. If the weather allows, Gautam Gambhir and management will be able to take a look at the young batter.

In his absensce, Devdutt Padikkal was given a chance in the first test, who failed to score big and Gill will surely come straight in the playing eleven. With Rohit coming back, KL Rahul will be pushed back in the middle order to strenthen the batting line up. 

For Australia, Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the pink-ball test due to side injury. He will be replaced by Scott Boland in the squad, who will play for the Primer Minister's XI as well. 

Both teams will play a 50-overs per side match.

Read Also | Indian captains to win POTM awards in Australia in Tests

Prime Minister's XI v India day two session times

First innings: 9:10 am-12.40 pm IST

Interval: 12.40 pm-1.10 pm IST

Second innings: 1.10 pm- 4.40 pm IST

Squads for the Prime Minister's XI v India match

Prime Minister's XI squad: Jack Edwards (c), Charlie Anderson, Mahli Beardman, Scott Boland, Jack Clayton, Aidan O'Connor, Ollie Davies, Jayden Goodwin, Sam Harper, Hanno Jacobs, Sam Konstas, Lloyd Pope, Matthew Renshaw, Jem Ryan

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.

After the mega IPL 2025 auction on 24th and 25th November, every Indian Premier League franchise made their squad for the upcoming IPL season. Rishabh Pant was the most expensive player in the auction history with an INR 27 cr bid from Lucknow Super Giants. Meantime, Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer also attracted huge bids from Punjab Kings and KKR respectively.

After the auction, only Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings (PBKS) were the teams to have a full quota of 25 players in their squad. Meantime, Surisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals were the teams with the least number of players in the squad. 

Before the mega auction, each team had the option to retain a maximum of six players including capped and uncapped players. Post the retentions, teams picked their squads in a bidding war for two days.

Squads of every IPL team after the IPL 2025 auction

Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

Batters:

• Ruturaj Gaikwad
• MS Dhoni (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Devon Conway
• Rahul Tripathi
• Shaik Rasheed
• Andre Siddarth

All-Rounders:

• Rachin Ravindra
• Ravichandran Ashwin (Bowling All-rounder)
• Vijay Shankar
• Sam Curran
• Anshul Kamboj
• Deepak Hooda (Bowling All-rounder)
• Jamie Overton
• Ramakrishna Ghosh
• Ravindra Jadeja
• Shivam Dube

Bowlers:

• Khaleel Ahmed
• Noor Ahmad
• Mukesh Choudhary
• Gurjapneet Singh
• Nathan Ellis
• Kamlesh Nagarkoti
• Shreyas Gopal
• Matheesha Pathirana

Delhi Capitals (DC)

Batters:

• KL Rahul (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Harry Brook
• Jake Fraser-McGurk
• Sameer Rizvi
• Faf du Plessis
• Donovan Ferreira (Wicketkeeper)
• Abishek Porel (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Tristan Stubbs (Wicketkeeper Batter)

All-Rounders:

• Karun Nair
• Ashutosh Sharma
• Darshan Nalkande
• Vipraj Nigam
• Ajay Mandal
• Manvanth Kumar L
• Tripurana Vijay
• Madhav Tiwari
• Axar Patel

Bowlers:

• Mitchell Starc
• T Natarajan
• Mohit Sharma
• Mukesh Kumar
• Dushmantha Chameera
• Kuldeep Yadav

Gujarat Titans (GT)

Batters:

• Shubman Gill
• Jos Buttler (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Kumar Kushagra (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Anuj Rawat (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Sherfane Rutherford
• Glenn Phillips (Wicketkeeper Batter)

All-Rounders:

• Nishant Sindhu
• Mahipal Lomror
• Washington Sundar
• Gerald Coetzee
• Mohd. Arshad Khan
• Karim Janat
• B. Sai Sudharsan
• Shahrukh Khan

Bowlers:

• Kagiso Rabada
• Mohammed Siraj
• Prasidh Krishna
• Manav Suthar
• Gurnoor Singh Brar
• Sai Kishore
• Ishant Sharma
• Jayant Yadav
• Kulwant Khejroliya
• Rahul Tewatia
• Rashid Khan

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Batters:

• Rinku Singh
• Quinton de Kock (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Rahmanullah Gurbaz
• Angkrish Raghuvanshi
• Rovman Powell
• Manish Pandey
• Luvnith Sisodia
• Ajinkya Rahane

All-Rounders:

• Venkatesh Iyer
• Anukul Roy
• Moeen Ali
• Ramandeep Singh
• Andre Russell

Bowlers:

• Anrich Nortje
• Vaibhav Arora
• Mayank Markande
• Spencer Johnson
• Umran Malik
• Harshit Rana
• Sunil Narine
• Varun Chakaravarthy

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)

Batters:

• Rishabh Pant (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• David Miller
• Aiden Markram
• Abdul Samad
• Aryan Juyal (Wicket Keeper)
• Himmat Singh
• Matthew Breetzke
• Nicholas Pooran (Wicketkeeper Batter)

All-Rounders:

• Mitchell Marsh
• Digvesh Singh
• Yuvraj Chaudhary
• Arshin Kulkarni
• Ayush Badoni

Bowlers:

• Avesh Khan
• Akash Deep
• M Siddharth
• Shahbaz Ahmed
• Akash Singh
• Shamar Joseph
• Prince Yadav
• Rajvardhan Hangargekar
• Mayank Yadav
• Mohsin Khan
• Ravi Bishnoi

Mumbai Indians (MI)

Batters:

• Rohit Sharma
• Suryakumar Yadav
• Robin Minz
• Ryan Rickelton
• Will Jacks
• Shrijith Krishnan
• Bevan John Jacobs
• N. Tilak Varma

All-Rounders:

• Naman Dhir
• Karn Sharma
• Mitchell Santner
• Raj Angad Bawa
• Arjun Tendulkar
• Vignesh Puthur
• Hardik Pandya

Bowlers:

• Trent Boult
• Deepak Chahar
• Allah Ghazanfar
• Ashwani Kumar
• Reece Topley
• Venkata Satyanarayana Penmetsa
• Lizaad Williams
• Jasprit Bumrah

Punjab Kings (PBKS)

Batters:

• Shreyas Iyer
• Vishnu Vinod
• Josh Inglis
• Harnoor Pannu
• Suryansh Shedge
• Pyla Avinash
• Prabhsimran Singh
• Shashank Singh

All-Rounders:

• Marcus Stoinis
• Glenn Maxwell
• Nehal Wadhera
• Marco Jansen
• Azmatullah Omarzai
• Priyansh Arya
• Aaron Hardie
• Musheer Khan

Bowlers:

• Arshdeep Singh
• Yuzvendra Chahal
• Harpreet Brar
• Vyshak Vijay Kumar
• Yash Thakur
• Lockie Ferguson
• Kuldeep Sen
• Xavier Bartlett
• Pravin Dubey

Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Batters:

• Sanju Samson (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Nitish Rana
• Shubham Dubey
• Vaibhav Suryavanshi
• Kunal Rathore
• Shimron Hetmyer
• Yashasvi Jaiswal
• Dhruv Jurel

All-Rounders:

• Jofra Archer
• Wanindu Hasaranga
• Yudhvir Singh

Bowlers:

• Maheesh Theekshana
• Akash Madhwal
• Kumar Kartikeya Singh
• Tushar Deshpande
• Fazalhaq Farooqi
• Kwena Maphaka
• Ashok Sharma
• Sandeep Sharma

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

Batters:

• Rajat Patidar
• Virat Kohli
• Liam Livingstone
• Phil Salt
• Jitesh Sharma
• Tim David
• Devdutt Padikkal
• Swastik Chhikara

All-Rounders:

• Krunal Pandya
• Swapnil Singh
• Romario Shepherd
• Manoj Bhandage
• Jacob Bethell
• Mohit Rathee

Bowlers:

• Josh Hazlewood
• Rasikh Dar
• Suyash Sharma
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar
• Nuwan Thushara
• Lungi Ngidi
• Abhinandan Singh
• Yash Dayal

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

Batters:

• Ishan Kishan (Wicketkeeper Batter)
• Aniket Verma
• Sachin Baby
• Heinrich Klaasen
• Travis Head

All-Rounders:

• Atharva Taide
• Abhinav Manohar
• Brydon Carse
• Kamindu Mendis
• Abhishek Sharma
• Nitish Kumar Reddy

Bowlers:

• Mohammad Shami
• Harshal Patel
• Rahul Chahar
• Adam Zampa
• Simarjeet Singh
• Zeeshan Ansari
• Jaydev Unadkat
• Eshan Malinga
• Pat Cummins

India created history in the first Test of the 2024 Border-Gavaskar Trophy by achieving their largest-ever win in Australia. At Perth's Optus Stadium, a venue where the Australian team had never lost before, India registered a stunning victory. Led by Jasprit Bumrah’s Player of the Match (POTM) worthy 8/72 across the two innings, India defeated Australia by 295 runs, their biggest every victory by runs in the country (if innings wins not considered). 

Also Read: Highest catches dropped percentages since 2011 (Min 100 chances) | Virat tops the list among batters

After achieving the POTM Award in Perth, Jasprit Bumrah became the fifth Indian captain who won POTM awards in Australia in Tests. Here's the other captain who achieved this feat on Australian soil.

1. Kapil Dev | Adelaide, 1985

The Haryana Hurricane Kapil Dev earned the POTM award following his spell of 8 for 106 in the first innings of the 1985 Adelaide Test, which set the stage for India to secure a draw against the home team. He was the first Indian captain who won POTM awards in Australia in Tests.

2. Sachin Tendulkar | Melbourne, 1999

In Melbourne in December 1999, when the weather was damp and batting a struggle, Australia rallied to 405 and India crumbled around Tendulkar. He scored his third ton on Australian soil since his twin shows in the 1991-92 series. His 116 off 191 balls (nine fours, one six) saw a follow-on-saving 43-run partnership with Anil Kumble (28 not out) and India ended on 238. The 167-run lead proved to be decisive as India lost the game by 180 runs, with Tendulkar’s POTM award coming as the visiting side’s consolation.

3. Sourav Ganguly | Brisbane, 2003

At the Gabba, India slipped from 61 for 0 to 62 for 3, in response to Australia's 323. In conditions that offered the pace and bounce that are the hallmark of Australian venues, Ganguly displayed remarkable judgement in his handling of the short delivery, and scored his first Test hundred in Australia.

Ganguly's 146-run stand with VVS Laxman (75) for the 5th wicket was notched up in 206 balls and his 144-run knock was studded with 18 hits to the fence. Such was the class of Ganguly's knock that it drew applause even from some of the Aussie players. This was India's first drawn series in Australia since 1981.

4. Ajinkya Rahane | Melbourne, 2021

After India were hammered in the first match in Adelaide Test series in 2021, skipper Kohli returned home for personal reasons and the responsibility fell on Rahane. Under Rahane's captaincy, India won the game by eight wickets and level the series 1-1. During this Rahane slammed his 12th Test hundred (112 off 223 balls). Rahane later led India to win the fourth and final Test in Brisbane to give his side a 2-1 series victory.

Also Read: Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Jasprit Bumrah breaks record with five-wicket haul in first test

5. Jasprit Bumrah | Perth, 2024

India played superb cricket over the span of the three and a half days in Perth, and defeated Australia by 295 runs, their biggest every victory by runs in the country (if innings wins not considered). 

Led by Jasprit Bumrah’s Player of the Match worthy 8/72 across the two innings at the Optus Stadium in Perth, India were rampant in the Test match right after their disappointing first innings on Day 1 when they folded for 150. They blew away Australia for just 104 in their first innings, and took a 46 runs lead. India scored 487/6d in the second innings and gave Australia a target of 534. The Australian top order collapsed once again in the second innings and the hosts could have repeated the first innings performance.

Hello and welcome to Sportz Point's LIVE coverage of the IPL 2025 Auction as the excitement around the cricketing world reaches its peak. From intense bidding wars, and surprise player picks, to expert analysis, as teams strategize for the upcoming season we will bring you everything in this LIVE blog for you.

A total of 577 players are set to be featured in the Mega Auction.

Stay tuned as we dive into the auction room dynamics, track the biggest buys, and provide expert analysis on the decisions that could redefine the upcoming season. Refresh this page regularly for the latest updates, commentary, and insights from the action-packed event.

Read Also | IPL 2025 Auction: 13 players from Bengal and their details

When and where the IPL 2025 Auction will start?

The IPL 2025 auction will start at 3.30 pm IST on 24th and 25th November in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.