Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
The highly anticipated IPL 2025 mega auction, which will decide the fate of 577 shortlisted players, is currently underway at the Abady Al Johar Arena in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. With just 204 slots up for grabs, including 70 overseas ones, only a select few out of 367 Indian and 210 overseas players will be picked by the Indian Premier League (IPL) teams for the 2025 season. Indian pacer Harshal Patel is one of the recent buys in the auction as SunRisers Hyderabad roped him in for INR 6.75 Cr for the upcoming season.
Notably, Harshal Patel was released by Punjab Kings in the players retention and came into the mega auction with base price of INR 2 Crore. The right-arm pacer took 24 wickets in 14 matches in IPL 2024. But in the IPL 2025 mega auction, SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) open the bid for Patel and were joined by Gujarat Titans (GT) in the bidding war. After that, Punjab Kings (PBKS) redeemed their Right To Match (RTM) card with SRH putting INR 8 Cr price and PBKS declining the move. Now, he is likely to play as a spearhead fast bowler in SunRisers Hyderabad along with Mohammed Shami and Pat Cummins.
Harshal Patel IPL career
Harshal Patel kickstarted his IPL career in 2012, after Royal Challengers Bengaluru roped him in for INR 8 Lakh in the auction. Since then, he went on to play for RCB and Delhi Capitals before he was sold to RCB again ahead of IPL 2021 for INR 20 Lakh. It turned out to be the best season of Harshal’s IPL career where the fast bowler scalped a record 32 wickets in 15 matches. After that, Harshal Patel saw a huge hike in his IPL salary as he got retained by RCB for a whopping INR 10.75 Crore ahead of IPL 2022.
After three years with RCB, Harshal Patel was sold to Punjab Kings at a price of INR 11.75 Crore ahead of IPL 2024. Now the 34-year-old is set to play for SunRisers Hyderabad in IPL 2025.
