In a series of interesting events, the third season of the Delhi Premier League (DPL) auction is all set to take place on Wednesday, with 600 players to go under the hammer. Star India batters Rishabh Pant and Pratika Rawal are among the big stars of the league.
600 players in the auction
The upcoming auction will have a pool of 600 players, where 400 men's players and 200 women's cricketers will go under the hammer. While eight teams will take part in the men's category event and four in the women's competition, the franchises have already retained 93 players in total, consisting of 65 men and 28 women before the bidding gets started.
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In the auction, every men's franchise has been given a salary purse of Rs 1.5 crore, while each women's side has an allocated budget of Rs 75 lakh. Since the value of retained players has already been adjusted against these amounts, franchises will use their leftover purse to assemble their teams during the auction.
The auction has been divided into four categories as per the player's experience. The marquee category features India internationals, India A cricketers, and players who have been with an IPL or Women's Premier League (WPL) franchise during the last three editions.
In category A, players who have represented Delhi's senior men's or women's teams in major domestic competitions over the last three seasons, while Category B consist of Delhi's Under-23, Under-19, and other age-group players. On the other hand, Category C consists of registered DDCA cricketers and top performers from the league circuit.
All you need to know about base price
The base price has been fixed differently for the men's and women's auctions. In the men's category, Marquee players will go under the hammer at Rs 10 lakh, followed by Rs 5 lakh for Category A, Rs 3 lakh for Category B, and Rs 1 lakh for Category C.
On the other hand, the women's auction has base prices of Rs 5 lakh for marquee players, Rs 3 lakh for Category A, Rs 1.5 lakh for Category B, and Rs 75,00 for Category C.
Rishabh Pant's underwhelming form in T20s
In the 2025 season, Pant managed to gather 269 runs at an average of 24.45 with a strike rate of 133.17, including one half century and one century. He recorded his best score of 118 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). While the story continued to be the same in the 2026 edition, Pant failed to make a strong comeback with the bat.
In 13 innings, the left-handed batter amassed only 312 runs at an average of just 28.36 with the strike rate of 138.05, consisting of only one half-century.