Karun Nair will replace KL Rahul for the remainder of the IPL 2023 season. Lucknow Super Giants have announced on May 5 the replacement of KL Rahul. Earlier Rahul has been ruled out from the remaining IPL due to his thigh injury.

Read Also: Andre Russell becomes the third batter with 600 T20 sixes

Karun Nair, was unsold at the IPL 2023 auction and later LSG bought him in 50 lakhs.He will join the team before the next match of LSG against Gujarat Titans on Sunday in Ahmedabad. Karun has played 76 IPL games and has scored 1496 runs in his IPL career. He played for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2022 and could only manage just 37 runs in the last 4 years in IPL. Also, he missed the 2021 season.

Krunal Pandya was the stand-in captain for LSG in the absence of KL Rahul on the last game against CSK on Wednesday which was washed out. Rahul would miss the WTC final too due to his injury . India will play Australia in the World Test Championship Final on 7th June in Oval.

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

After two days of exciting show auction in Jeddah, the ten Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises were able to pick their squad for the IPL 2025. Rishabh Pant came out as the most expensive player in IPL auction's history with a humongous INR 27 cr bid from Lucknow Super Giants while Shreyas Iyer was the first player ever to get a 25 cr plus deal in an IPL auction.

Shreyas Iyer, the IPL 2024 winning captain received a 26.75 cr bid from Punjab Kings, who had released most of their players during the retention and wanted a captain in their squad. Along with him, Punjab Kings with the highest money in the purse before the auction, were responsible for three of the top 10 most expensive bids. They first brought back their fast bowler Arshdeep Singh for INR 18 cr and after Shreyas Iyer's bid, they made Yuzvendra Chahal the most expensive spinner in IPL history.

Chahal, who everyone thought could go back to RCB, was eventually bought by Punjab Kings for a whooping INR 18 cr, which was the fourth-highest bid of the auction. Meantime, the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders surprised everyone after buying back Venkatesh Iyer for INR 23 cr. They nearly fought a bidding war with Royal Challengers Bangalore to bring him back to Eden Gardens.

Jos Buttler was another marquee player, who was supposed to be big in the auction and he was Gujarat Titan's highest bid of the season at INR 15.75 cr. KL Rahul, went to Delhi Capitals for INR 14 cr, which everyone thought was another case of RCB not going all-out for a player. 

Trent Boult reunited with Jasprit Bumrah at Mumbai Indians, after the five-time champions decided to spend most of their money on retaining their core group of players. The Kiwi pacer was sold for INR 12.5 cr. Aussie pacer Josh Hazlewood also attracted the same amount of money from RCB, who were looking for a good fast bowler, after they let Mohammed Siraj go in the retention and auction as well. 

Top 10 most expensive players in IPL 2025 auction

The second day of the Perth Test match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia has ended. India now has a lead of 218 runs due to the record partnership of 172 runs by the Indian team's openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Australia all out on 104

Team India's first innings was limited to a score of only 150 in this match, after which, due to the excellent performance of the bowlers, Australia managed to score only 104 runs in its first innings, giving the Indian team a lead of 46 runs. At the start of the day's play on Saturday, Australia had 7 wickets for 67 runs. The team had lost the last 3 wickets in scoring 37 runs. Wicketkeeper Alex Carey could only add 2 runs to his score on the first day and made a total of 21 runs, while Nathan Lyon contributed 5 runs. Mitchell Starc scored the highest score of 26 runs.

By the end of the second day's play, Team India had scored 172 runs without any loss in their second innings, in which they had also achieved a lead of 218 runs. 

Strong performance by Indian bowlers

Indian bowlers have performed brilliantly and brought the team into the competition. Jasprit Bumrah has taken 5 wickets while playing captaincy innings. Harshit Rana has got 3 wickets and Mohammad Siraj has got 2 wickets.

Jaiswal and Rahul put India in driver's seat

After a frenetic first day that saw 17 wickets tumble, Day 2 showcased a different rhythm as Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul produced a gritty, old-school batting display to grind down Australia. Jaiswal showcased his class with an unbeaten 90 and KL Rahul displayed great composure with his 62* as India built a solid 218-run lead over Australia to take control of the game at stumps on Day 2.  Jaiswal faced 193 balls while Rahul fended off 153. Australia tried hard to break the stand but failed miserably.

 Border-Gavaskar Trophy | Day 2 Report

• Australia: 104 all out in 51.2 overs (Mitchell Starc 26, Alex Carey 21; Jasprit Bumrah 5/30)
• India: 172/0 in 57 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 90 not out, KL Rahul 62 not out)

Australia 104; India 172/0 at stumps

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is slowly getting closer. Many players of Team India have also left for Australia for the series. India will play the first Test against Australia starting November 22 in Perth. Amidst all this, India team head coach Gautam Gambhir answered all the questions through a press conference.

Following India’s loss to New Zealand at home in the recently concluded Test series, Gambhir received a lot of flak about his coaching style. Reports emerged that the former India opener’s future as the India head coach is under BCCI scanner and could be decided on how Rohit Sharma’s men perform in Australia at the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

Also Read: When was the last time India were whitewashed in a test series at home?

Rohit's availability in the series

Even before the Border-Gavaskar trophy, there were strong reports that captain Rohit Sharma would not be present for the first Test. Talking about the availability of Rohit, Gambhir said, "There's no confirmation right now on Rohit's. Hopefully he'll be present. Everything you will get to know before the start of the series."

In case Rohit misses out, either KL Rahul or Abhimanyu Easwaran will accompany Yashasvi Jasiwal as the other opener. “If Rohit Sharma isn’t available, KL Rahul and Abhimanyu Easwaran are our opening options,” he added.

Gambhir supported KL Rahul

On questions asked on KL Rahul, Gambhir said, "You need a lot of talent to bat at any position. and KL Rahul keeps wickets in ODIs too. Imaggine how many countries have players like KL"

Bumrah will be the captain in Rohit's absence

Captain Rohit Sharma is unlikely to be available for the first Test in Perth due to personal reasons. Gambhir made it clear that if Rohit is not available, then Jasprit Bumrah will be the captain of Team India. Bumrah will play as the vice-captain of Team India in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar trophy. " Jasprit Bumrah will captain India if Rohit Sharma isn't available."

Gambhir on Rohit-Virat's poor form

On the poor form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Gambhir said, " I have no concerns about Virat and Rohit. They have achieved a lot for Indian Cricket and they will continue to achieve a lot in the future as well"

Also Read: Is it the end of Rohit-Kohli? How can India qualify for WTC final? Who else whitewashed India at home?

'we're not thinking of WTC Final now'

Responded to his criticisms

On the criticism he faced as head coach, Gambhir stated he is enjoying his run as the India head coach and isn’t feeling any heat. “I am not feeling the heat, it's an absolute honour and privilege to coach India,” 

KL Rahul along with the whole top order of India-A team failed in the second unoffical test. Rahul, who was sent in as an opener could only manage to score 4 while captain Ruturaj Gaikwad also scored 4 as well. Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan were dimissed for ducks in the first over by Micheal Nesser. 

Rahul was dismissed by Scott Boland as he edged a length delivery to the keeper Jimmy Peirson in the second over.

Indian senior team better KL Rahul, and wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel were named in the playing XI of India A vs Australia A second unofficial test match at Melbourne cricket Ground to preapre for the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

Both Rahul and Jurel were part of the recently concluded home series against New Zealand, where India were whitewashed by the Kiwis. Though Rahul played in the first test match in Bangalore only, Jurel warmed the benc throughout the series. 

Read Also | Exclusive | "Felt like my debut:" Bengal pacer Ishan Porel now wants to enjoy his cricket after a solid comeback to first-class cricket

Indian A team for the second unofficial test match 

Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Tanush Kotian, Khaleel Ahmed, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar

AUS A team for the second unofficial test match 

Nathan McSweeney (c), Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft, Sam Konstas, Oliver Davies, Beau Webster, Jimmy Peirson (wk), Michael Neser, Nathan McAndrew, Scott Boland, Corey Rocchiccioli

Who will open for India in the first test against Australia?

Although it has been rumored that KL Rahul will open for India in the first test against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since captain Rohit Sharma might miss that game. However, after this failure, it will be interesting to see what decision the team management takes.