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The highly anticipated Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2025 player auction took place at the KMK Lobby in the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday, February 15. The eight teams in the tournament retained and released a few big players before the auction to rebuild their 2025 season, which meant that the Indian internationals Vijay Shankar and Washington Sundar went under the hammer alongside some of the top cricketers from the state.
With a requirement to keep a minimum of 16 players, which can be maxed out at 20 players, each of the TNPL teams had to spend their INR 80 Lakh budget, to put together a best combination for the upcoming 2025 season this summer. Ravichandran Ashwin’s Dindigul Dragons are the defending TNPL champions, and they had the captain make an appearance on the auction table as well this afternoon.
The most expensive player of the TNPL 2025 auction, as of this writing, is Mohammed M, who was picked up by Salem Spartans for a whopping INR 18.4 Lakh. The bowling all-rounder, who is 33 years of age, has been an exceptional performer in the domestic and TNPL circuit for the past few years, and after an intense bidding war between multiple teams, he has landed a massive contract for the upcoming 2025 edition of the premier franchise T20 tournament in Tamil Nadu.
Below is the list of top five expensive buys in TNPL 2025 player auction:
1. Mohammed M - Salem Spartans - INR 18.4 Lakh
2. Vijay Shankar - Chepauk Super Gillies - INR 18 Lakh
3. Mukliesh U - Trichy Grand Cholans - INR 17.6 Lakh
4. Suresh Kumar J - Trichy Grand Cholas - INR 16.1 Lakh
5. Hari Nishant - Salem Spartans - INR 12 Lakh
Mohammed M was able to fetch a higher bid than the Indian international Vijay Shankar, which was a surprise to many in the cricketing circles, but at the same time, it is a reward for him since his progression at the domestic level has been incredible recently. Moreover, in a massive surprise, another Indian international Washington Sundar fetched INR 6 Lakh only, which could be considered as the biggest surprise of all during the TNPL 2025 auction.
