Ranking the top 3 teams who had the worst IPL 2025 Auction ft. Lucknow Super Giants
With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction done and squads built, all franchises are locked and loaded for the upcoming season of the cash-rich league. Franchises were a part of intense bidding wars to rope in some of the top players from across the globe.
Teams went all out to bring in some of the biggest names on their side while there was a significant focus on uncapped players and local talents as well. Many teams such as the Gujarat Titans, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, and Punjab Kings among others had a good outing at the IPL 2025 auction.
However, there were also some teams who seemed to lack a clear strategy or plan on how they wanted to go about building their squad. While they did manage to bring in some top-quality players, they may not have filled enough gaps or built a well-balanced unit and may come up short.
That said, let us take a look at three such teams who probably had the worst IPL 2025 auction.
Ranking the top 3 teams who had the worst IPL 2025 Auction
#3 Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad, the 2016 IPL champions, retained a strong core with the likes of Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, and Nitish Reddy. With the addition of Ishan Kishan and Abhinav Manohar, they have a strong batting line-up.
However, they do not seem to have enough reliable backup options for the middle and lower middle order. They let go of proven pacers such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan. While they did manage to bring in Mohammed Shami and Harshal Patel, whether they have done enough to build a potent pace attack or not remains a question.
The likes of Simarjeet Singh and Jaydev Unadkat are the backup options as far as the pace attack goes but they do not seem to provide enough confidence.
#2 Rajasthan Royals
The winners of the inaugural IPL edition, Rajasthan Royals is another team that did a decent job with their retentions. While they have a strong top and middle order, they seem to be lacking enough backup options for the finisher role.
Jofra Archer will lead their pace attack alongside Sandeep Sharma. However, apart from Sandeep, there is no other well-established Indian fast bowler in the line-up.
They acquired some top-quality spinners in Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga. However, with Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal gone, they are now completely reliant on their overseas spinners with no potent Indian spinner to replace Ashwin or Chahal.
#1 Lucknow Super Giants
Lucknow Super Giants probably had the worst IPL 2025 auction among all teams. There did not seem to be a clear strategy in place to build a well-balanced squad. They managed to replace KL Rahul with the record signing of Rishabh Pant.
While they have built a good-looking batting unit, the question of who will be their openers still remains. Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, or Matthew Breetzke could open the batting but there does not seem to be an established opening pair.
They have filled their batting unit with firepower nonetheless. However, it is the bowling where they might come up short. They have a decent Indian bowling core, but the lack of an established overseas pacer could cost them. Shamar Joseph appears to be the only frontline overseas pacer in the squad.