Chennai Super Kings tore up the form book in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, spending INR 14.2 crore each on uncapped pair Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma – the joint-highest outlay on Indian players without an international cap. The figure eclipses the INR 10 crore shelled out for Avesh Khan three years ago and headlines a busy auction where several lesser-known names pocketed life-changing money.
First came Veer, the 20-year-old left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder from Uttar Pradesh. Listed at a modest INR 30 lakh, he found himself at the centre of a six-team tug-of-war that rattled past the eight-crore mark in minutes. Mumbai and Lucknow set the early pace, Rajasthan and Sunrisers briefly muscled in, but it was CSK who kept blinking last. Veer’s senior résumé is thin – nine domestic T20s – yet his strike-rotation skills and accuracy in the UP T20 League and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy persuaded Chennai scouts he could cover for the recently traded Ravindra Jadeja.
No sooner had the hammer gone down than CSK returned for Kartik Sharma, a 19-year-old wicketkeeper-batter from Rajasthan better known on social media for fearless late-innings hitting. Again the base price sat at INR 30 lakh; again it rocketed. Lucknow, Kolkata and Mumbai each raised the paddle, only to step away once Chennai matched their Veer spend at 14.2. Kartik’s brief T20 ledger shows 334 runs at a strike rate of 164, with 28 sixes – small sample size, big impact. Management firm JSW Sports, who also guide Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, will not be short of sponsorship calls this week.
Stephen Fleming, the franchise’s long-serving head coach, explained the thinking afterwards. “Kartik Sharma, we had him last year and he did some trialing with us,” he said. “We’ve been watching Kartik for some time and I’ll go back to the scouting and the work that’s done in a lot of tournaments. Prashant Veer, given that we needed that kind of skillset with trading Jadeja for Sanju and we identified him as a good talent going forward and filling that spot for us, doing that skillset.
“As the game has evolved, we might have been a little bit slow to evolve with it. Only halfway through the tournament [IPL 2025] we had a big shift and you saw with the players we got in as reserves, there was a shift in what we needed to do. Sometimes you can hang on to theories and philosophies because of past success but we identified that we needed to shift and partly the work that we did last season halfway through has enabled us to continue that work done.
“We knew if we can get a strong core of local players I think your team’s in good shape, and sometimes you have to invest time in them and also money because what is happening is the scouting on numerous tournaments around India are becoming very important. So players ar.”
Fleming’s final sentence tailed off as the coach fielded another question, yet his message was clear enough: CSK believe the future balance of T20 sides rests on agile, multidimensional Indians rather than purely overseas marquee names.
Elsewhere, the uncapped market proved lively. Delhi Capitals splashed INR 8.4 crore on Auqib Nabi, the lively fast bowler from Jammu & Kashmir, while wicketkeepers Tejasvi Dahiya (INR 3 crore to Kolkata) and Mukul Choudhary (INR 2.6 crore to Lucknow) also crossed the seven-figure threshold. Young seamer Naman Tiwari joined Lucknow for a neat INR 1 crore.
The trend underlines a subtle shift in franchise strategy. With established internationals already tied down in longer-term contracts, auctions now reward domestic performers who can plug specific gaps – a defensive spinner for Sharjah, a power-hitter for Chepauk, or a swing bowler for Dharamsala. The sums look eye-watering, yet the salary cap rises annually and owners increasingly view development spend as insurance against injury and international call-ups.
For Veer and Kartik the coming months bring fresh pressure: a 60-day tournament, rigorous training blocks and thousands of camera lenses waiting for the first mis-stumping or half-tracker. Equally, they carry the realistic hope of leapfrogging the India A queue if they settle quickly. IPL history is littered with similar stories – some blossom, others stall – but the pair went to bed on Tuesday night with financial security and an empty calendar marked “pre-season with MS Dhoni” in bold ink. That alone feels worth the bidding frenzy.
