Now that the disappointing 2025 season is over, it’s the ideal moment for a harsh look back before we get too caught up in the excitement of the 2026 mega-auction. In actuality, several teams entered the 2025 auction room. They made some genuinely dubious choices – choices that, looking back, turned out to be dead weight, depleted their salary caps, and generally destroyed the team’s momentum before the season had even reached the halfway point.

3 Wrong Decisions in IPL 2025 Auction

Those high-risk, low-reward gambles that become agonising burdens are what we are discussing. Identifying the clear mistake in IPL 2025 auction strategy is crucial. Let’s review 3 examples of wrong decisions in IPL auction that showcase a poor IPL 2025 auction strategy that went horribly wrong.

KKR Putting Their Faith in the Wrong “Iyer”

You have to scratch your head when you look at the Kolkata Knight Riders‘ 2025 auction strategy. Yes, the noise was all about them securing the services of all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer for a monstrous ₹23.75 Crore. That price tag was absolutely bananas, and when Venky went on to score only 142 runs in 11 matches, the press – and the fans – piled on. His poor form, which he himself blamed on the shift in his batting position and the psychological weight of that insane price, was a predictable failure.

But seriously, here’s the crazy, unbelievable part: that whole Venkatesh Iyer buy wasn’t even the biggest mistake! The true blunder – the head-scratching wrong decision – was who they let walk. It’s still hard to believe. KKR simply let their championship captain, Shreyas Iyer, go without putting up a fight, even though he had literally just guided the team to their first title in a decade in 2024. The guy was the glue that held the squad together, and his clever, controlled batting was essential to their success.

The mistake in the IPL 2025 auction wasn’t the ₹23.75 Crore they threw at one player; it was the zero Rupees they spent to keep their champion leader. They utterly sacrificed their stable, proven core for a high-cost, unnecessary gamble.

LSG’s ₹27-Crore-Catastrophe

When the final bid came in, and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) signed Rishabh Pant for an unbelievable ₹27 Crore, making him the most expensive player ever, everyone was stunned. After letting go of their old captain, KL Rahul, the LSG bosses didn’t just see a wicketkeeper-batsman; they saw a huge superstar who could bring in crowds and become their future team leader. They basically bet everything on his ability to single-handedly change games, believing his star power would guarantee them success.

The truth, however, was a disastrous letdown that exposed a serious weakness in their IPL 2025 auction strategy. The wrong decision in IPL auction wasn’t just the price; it was the psychological pressure they put on him. Finishing the tournament with a meagre 269 runs in 14 matches is bad enough. Still, when you strip away his single brilliant century (118* against RCB), Pant managed only 151 runs across the other 13 initial games. This showed shocking inconsistency for a player carrying the entire franchise’s hope.

Compounding the issue, his leadership failed to inspire, as the Super Giants finished a humiliating 7th in the table with only six wins. The mistake in IPL 2025 auction was believing that one hyper-expensive star could paper over deep structural cracks in the team and simultaneously carry the burdens of captaincy, keeping, and anchor batting. It was a failure of expectation management, proving that sometimes, the biggest price tag guarantees the biggest flop.

CSK’s Bid for Ashwin’s Veteran Charm

The Chennai Super Kings have always been the team of ‘Dad’s Army.’ Since the start of the IPL, the franchise, heavily influenced by MS Dhoni’s philosophy, has always doubled down on experience, often viewing youth with suspicion. This old-school IPL 2025 auction strategy was in full effect when they secured the services of R. Ashwin for a chunky ₹9.75 Crore. It wasn’t just a purchase; it was a defiant statement: we back proven veterans.

However, the 2025 season brutally exposed this cultural flaw. While Ashwin’s reputation is immense, his T20 game has become slightly one-dimensional, and he proved ineffective for the five-time champions, managing only 7 dismissals in 9 games at a concerning economy of 9.13. This wasn’t the disciplined containment CSK is famous for.

The wrong decision in IPL auction here wasn’t just paying too much; it was paying for reputation when they needed a modern T20 utility. In today’s league, you need spinners who not only contain but also actively take wickets or offer power-hitting depth. As veterans like Harbhajan Singh later pointed out, CSK failed to adapt. They spent a massive sum to buy a player who offered a traditional skillset, sacrificing the budget they needed for a young, versatile death bowler or an explosive finisher, which ultimately killed their momentum and led to their early exit. They were stuck trying to win a 2025 tournament with a 2012 blueprint.

Conclusion

These decisions collectively demonstrate how a mistake in IPL 2025 auction derailed an entire season. As we look forward to the 2026 mega-auction, every franchise must learn from these costly errors: value consistency over flash, define the role precisely, and never gamble on availability. The difference between a championship and a last-place finish often comes down to the wisdom displayed under the hammer.