Predicting the top 3 most expensive buys in Set 1 of capped batters at IPL 2025 Auction ft. Jake Fraser-McGurk

Five overseas players, Harry Brook, Aiden Markram, Devon Conway, Jake Fraser-McGurk and David Warner, alongside just two Indians, Rahul Tripathi and Devdutt Padikkal, will make up the first set of capped batters in the IPL 2025 auction.

This set, 'BA1', will likely come after the two Marquee lots, where most franchises would have already emptied a lion's share of their purses. These seven batters would probably be seen as more of smart buys than revolutionary ones.

These are players who won't take a huge amount of the limelight in the team or the auction, but would still likely be a key part of the playing 11. Below, we have predicted three players, who we think can earn the most money in this set.

The process we have used is a combination of team needs, the player's skills and auction dynamics. The ranking of these would also explain the others' exclusion.

#3 Jake Fraser-McGurk

There's a slight recency bias going against young Australian opener Jake Fraser-McGurk due to his inability to convert starts in the recent white-ball series against Pakistan. But with the advent of the impact player rule, batting in the IPL is less about the number of runs and more about numb hitting and high strike rates.

Fraser-McGurk gives both of those things plus high entertainment value. He showed that in the last IPL, his first season, scoring 330 at a jaw-dropping strike rate of 234.04. No one with more than 60 runs struck at a better rate than him.

Every team with flat tracks at home would want to get him. And those teams are now at an all-time high, with even the Eden Gardens and Chepauk seeing high-scoring games in IPL 2024. Fraser-McGurk is also just 22 and only plays two international formats -- so teams will see him as an asset for the next three years.

He embodies T20 cricket and it would be a massive surprise if more than two teams don't spare something around ₹10 crore for him.

#2 Devon Conway

The recency bias has also impacted Devon Conway because he missed the last IPL season, and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) longed for the stability he provided at the top of the order. Not just CSK but many other teams will keep an eye on him.

Conway is not just an experienced opener who can play in multiple gears and brings an IPL strike rate of 141.28 with him, but he's also one of the few overseas batters to have scored 600-plus runs (672 in 2023) in an IPL season. To add to that, he's a brilliant wicketkeeper who gives the left-handed batting option too.

Even CSK might look to get him back at the auction. But four other teams haven't retained a wicketkeeper either and would have seen the effectiveness of the 'keeper-opener combo in examples of Conway, Jos Buttler and Phil Salt.

Moreover, with the new RTM rule, which allows the last-bidding franchise another chance to grab the player, Conway's old team's interest in him might increase his value manifold. A bidding war is likely but where it'll end is anybody's guess.

#1 Harry Brook

England batter Harry Brook went for ₹13.25 crore in the IPL auction two years ago, with Sunrisers Hyderabad getting hold of him. Since then, he has solidified his place in the national team across formats and even captained England brilliantly in Ben Stokes' absence.

Although he couldn't do much in 2023 after his century against the Kolkata Knight Riders, Brook has gotten much more consistent in the format. In the last two seasons at The Hundred, he struck at 196.69 and 148.18 respectively, while his career T20I strike rate has increased over 10 points to 146.07.

Brook's value would come from his versatility -- not many overseas batters are as good at batting at every position as him -- his image as the likely future white-ball captain of England and his age (25, just before his prime years).

Almost every team in the auction would love a batter with those attributes and a well-rounded game. Unless he comes extremely late in the set, Brook would probably end up as one of the most expensive players in the IPL 2025 auction.