Mukesh Kumar, a name that has been resonating among cricket fans in India after the IPL 2023 Auction on Friday. The Bengal pacer has earned a whopping 5.5 cr bid from Delhi Capitals in the auction and now has become the highest-paid IPL player ever from Bengal surpassing Sourav Ganguly. He is also the second most expensive uncapped player of this year's auction. But, his story is not all about success. It is about patience and intent. Mukesh shared his story in a telephonic conversation with Sportz Point from National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Read Also: IPL 2023 Auction: Most expensive uncapped players

Mukesh had a terrific 2022 and everything has fallen into place for him this year. From getting selected for the Irani trophy, and playing for India A to getting his maiden India call-up, Mukesh has seen everything happening for him. "Yes, 2022 has been great for me. Everything that I wanted to happen with me has happened this year. I am grateful for that," Mukesh told Sportz Point in an exclusive interview.

"I knew Delhi would bid for me:" Mukesh Kumar

From going unsold in the 2022 auction to earning 5.5 crores in the 2023 auction, Mukesh Kumar has seen it all. Thus, he knows there will be a lot of expectations from him. Moreover, he is also aware of the fact that he will be under the scanner every time he runs into bowl.

"I was unsold last season. But I did well in the Delhi Capitals trials and that's why they called me up as a net bowler for them. I did well there as well. So, I knew they will bid for me."

"Yes, there will be expectations from me. The things I learned from Ajit Agarkar sir, Pravin Amre and Ricky Ponting sir will help me going into the season," Mukesh added.

"Without Vision 2020 there would not have been any Mukesh Kumar"

But everything was not as smooth as this for Mukesh Kumar a few years back. It was the Cricket Association of Bengal who took care of him which helped him be the best version of himself. Mukesh remembers those days when he used to get up early in the morning just to book a pitch in Victoria Memorial ground to play tennis-cricket with his friends and how then Vision 2020 changed everything for him.

"I still remember how I used to tie a cord in my hands and leave it outside the window so that my friends can wake me up whenever I failed to wake up early in the morning. We used to play tennis cricket the whole day."

"I am thankful to CAB for all the help. Sourav (Ganguly) sir, Rano (Ranadeb Bose) sir, Joydeep (Mukherjee) sir and the whole CAB took care of me. Provided me with nutrition and training. Without Vision 2020 there would not have been any Mukesh Kumar," the Bengal pacer expressed.

"I used to watch and idolise Brett Lee"

Just like many pacers back in the day, Mukesh idolised Brett Lee during his early days. He now wants to keep learning to become more lethal as a pacer. "I want to keep learning every day. Making improvements every day will be key for me. In Delhi Capitals there will be legends like Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson. Even in Bangalore here I am working with Sairaj Bahutule sir to make myself better. I even call Rano sir whenever I need some help," he added.

But, Mukesh is aware of the fact that there is still one thing due to achieve in domestic cricket. That is the Ranji Trophy. Bengal has not won a Ranji Trophy since the 1989-90 season and Mukesh wants to win that trophy for all the Bengal fans.

"We have done well as a team. We played the final in the 2019-20 season and played the semis last year. This year everyone has contributed as well. So, I hope this year we will be able to win that trophy for Bengal and the whole fans of Bengal."

Mukesh Kumar

After going through all the ups and downs of life, Mukesh now has a message for the young cricketers of Bengal who wants to make it big. The pacer believes if the youngsters never give up and practice with intent, they will surely have what they want to achieve.

"The best thing is that CAB has a great league tournament here in Kolkata. So, if youngsters never give up and practice with intent, they will be successful one day. Patience and intent is the key to success".

BCCI announced the player list for the upcoming WPL 2025 Auction. 120 players are on the list, among which 91 are Indian and 29 overseas cricketers, including 3 from Associate Nations.

The Women's Premier League (WPL) Auction 2025 will take place on 15th December 2024 in Bengaluru. The are 82 Indian uncapped players and 8 uncapped overseas players in the auction list.

With most of the franchises holding their core group of players, 19 slots will be up for grabs, with 5 slots reserved for overseas players.

Only 3 players were listed in the bracket of the highest base price of INR 50 lakhs while 28 players will be auctioned starting with their base price of INR 30 lakhs. 

West Indian all-rounder Deandra Dottin, England batter Heather Knight, and South African wicket-keeper batter Lizelle Lee will enter the auction with the highest base price of INR 50 lakhs.

Read Also | "She is a tough girl:" WPL 2023's Purple cap holder Saika Ishaque's coach Shiv Sagar Singh

In the first set of 20 marquee players, Australia's Darcie Brown and Kim Garth, England's Lauren Bell and Sarah Glenn and India's Sneh Rana can go for big bucks during the WPL 2025 auction.

From the Cricket Association of Bengal, only two players have been able to make it to the list. Priyanka Bala, who was already with the Mumbai Indians squad, has found herself on the list. Along with her, young all-rounder Sushmita Ganguly will also be auctioned with a base price of INR 10 lakhs.

Read Also | Exclusive | Taunts to Claps: Priyanka Bala's journey from rural village of Nadia to WPL

Breakdown of 120 players in the WPL auction list

WPL 2025 Reatined players' list

Full list of players listed for the WPL 2025 Auction

Imagine what you're doing at the age of 13. You probably were going to a school or playing at a local sports academy. But can you imagine at 13 years old age you can become a crorepati in India playing professional cricket? Yes, you can if you are Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who was picked by Rajasthan Royals at a whooping 1.10 crore rupees in the recently concluded IPL 2025 mega auction.

After the mega auction, Vaibhav was a household name in India. But, you will be shocked knowing that he has been playing cricket under BCCI since the age of eight and has already played at the first-class level. He has already featured in five first-class matches and played a T20 game for Bihar earlier this year.

Moreover, he became the youngest overall and fastest India centurion in Youth Test Cricket's history, when he slammed a 58-ball ton in an unofficial test against Australia at M.A Chidambaram earlier this year.

After his record-breaking inning, Sportz Point got to have a word with the young sensation during the Bengal vs Bihar Ranji Trophy match, which was called off due to rain and wet outfield. Vaibhav at that time had revealed that all of his aggression and quick scoring come naturally to him and he is a great fan of Brian Lara. As a left-handed batter, he loves to watch the former West Indian legend's old highlights and how he used to dominate bowlers during his era.

Read Also | IPL 2025 Auction: Top 10 Most Expensive players of the auction

Vaibhav has been getting support from his family, friends and coaches from an early age to get where he is currently. Bihar's head coach Ashok Kumar is one of those coaches who has helped the teenager to be able to come this far now. After his record-breaking IPL deal with Rajasthan Royals, Sportz Point got to know more about Vaibhav via Ashok Kumar.

A few players like Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar, who are actually from Bihar, had to move to Kolkata for better opportunities in cricket. Due to the lack of infrastructure and exposure, many players from the state have gone unnoticed in recent decades. But, this was not the case for a sensational talent like Vaibhav and for that, Ashok Kumar wants to thank the Bihar Cricket Association for giving this "once in a generation" talent a chance so early.

"Congrats to Vaihav. He is a great talent we all know. I have been watching him since he got the chance in the Bihar U-19 team. Watching this kid grow as a player, has been remarkable for me and everyone in Bihar," Ashok Kumar told Sportz Point.

"But, I want to thank and congratulate everyone associated with Bihar Cricket Association for identifying this talent and giving him a chance so early in his career," he added.

Vaibhav from his early days had the skill and temperament to dominate senior bowlers and score big runs. He burst onto the scene with an unbeaten 332 in a U-19 tournament in Bihar;  Randhir Verma Tournament. Ashok Kumar wants Vaibhav to continue with the intent which has helped him so far.

"I have been fortunate to coach the Bihar U-19 and senior team and have seen him up and close in the last few years. I know, with time, many teams will try to watch out for a weakness in his batting. But, the only thing that I always advise him is to keep the intent he has as a batter. He is not afraid of any bowler and his natural ability to hit bowlers will take him very far in his career," Ashok Kumar expressed.

Vaibhav's father Sanjeev Suryavanshi has been his formal coach. He also consults Wasim Jaffer from time to time for advice, whom he had met during a U-19 tournament in Bangladesh in November 2023. Luckily for the youngster, he will now be coached by former Indian Men's team head coach Rahul Dravid, who has developed many U-19 stars into future Indian players during his time with the U-19 and senior team.

Read Also | Exclusive: Inspired by Easwaran's work ethic, a more mature Abishek Porel wants to score big hundreds for Bengal in Ranji Trophy 2024-25

Also, Rahul Dravid and Rajasthan Royals were the franchise that gave young Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag an early chance in the Indian Premier League to showcase their talent. Ashok Kumar feels, that having Rahul Dravid as his coach will only enhance him as an overall player and a human being.

"With Rahul Dravid sir, we all know Vaibhav will learn a lot of great things about his game and I feel his time at the Rajasthan Royals will help him be more disciplined as well. Rajasthan Royals have helped a lot of young players in the past and I am hopeful Vaibhav will also emerge as one of the stars from the franchise," Ashok Kumar stated.

"Vaibhav's presence in the Indian Premier League and the U-19 team will influence many kids in the state to play cricket. They will now believe that if you have the talent and work hard on it, anyone can play at the highest level even from states like Bihar. I feel, a brighter time coming for Bihar State Cricket, via champion players like Vaibhav." 

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

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.

The Mega Auction for IPL 2025 will commence today and will last two days, where all the 10 IPL franchises will lock horns to snatch away great talents and big names to shape up their respective teams that will compete in the IPL 2025 for the final glory. 

Here are the FAQ and everything you need to know about the IPL 2025 Mega Auction. 

Read Also | Full list of players to be auctioned