IPL 2025: 5,500 percent, RCB recruit beats Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer to get highest pay hike in auction history

Jitesh Sharma was bought by RCB for Rs 11 crore. (Photo: PTI)

Plenty of cricketers bagged multi-million deals at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega-auction. A total of Rs 639.15 crore was spent at the two-day event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia which saw some players from humble backgrounds becoming millionaires overnight. One of them was wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma who received a 5,400 percent hike in salary compared to the IPL 2022 auction. In 2022, Jitesh was bought by the Punjab Kings for Rs 20 lakh and now RCB have signed him for Rs 11 crore.

Royal Challengers Bangalore first won the bid for him at Rs 7 crore but PBKS used the RTM option for him which elevated his price tag to Rs 11 crore. Interestingly, Dhruv Jurel who was retained by the Rajasthan Royals also received a 6,900 increase in salary as he will get Rs 14 crore compared to his previous salary of Rs 20 lakh.

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The IPL 2025 mega auction as expected broke records, first Shreyas Iyer became the most expensive player in IPL history with a price tag of Rs 26.75 crore and it was broken by Rishabh Pant half an hour later as he was bought for Rs 27 crore by the Lucknow Super Giants.

Jitesh Sharma added a finishing strength to RCB's lower order, creating a formidable batting lineup, while the addition of the experienced Krunal Pandya and West Indian Romario Shepherd provided steel to both the batting and the bowling departments.

"It was really great to get Bhuvi, that level of skill, along with Krunal's level of skill, will complement Hazlewood coming back to RCB. It'd be great to have him back at back at the club.  Yash Dayal, we saw what he did last year and we've got a Rasikh salam, vying for a place as well. So that sort of skill, I think, is a skill in the bowling department is what you need at Chinnaswamy. So, to have that level of skill, secured is a good feeling for us. Well, we got a lot of our first options, actually. So, we're really happy with where we stand at the moment," said the Head Coach, Andy Flower.

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RCB Squad: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee.