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The Delhi Capitals missed out on a promising talent due to a rare oversight by the auctioneer during the IPL 2025 Mega Auction.
Swastik Chikara will now move to RCB. (Image: X)
On Day 2 of the 2025 Indian Premier League Mega Auction, all 10 franchises looked to add the final touches to their respective squads. But both Delhi Capitals and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru were caught in a wave of confusion when the uncapped talent, Swastik Chikara was in the spotlight during the auction process.
RCB began the bidding process for Chikara at his base price of Rs 30 Lakh and the auctioneer, Mallika Sagar had seemingly confirmed that RCB secured the player but forgot to notice DC’s bid. The Capitals’ Head Coach, Hemang Badani had told the auctioneer that they had also raised their paddle which resulted in a wave of confusion.
The auctioneer had accepted her mistake and admitted that she failed to pick up Delhi’s bid. But the rules state that once the hammer went down it meant that the decision was final and no changes could be made after, meaning that Delhi lost out on a player.
The Capitals’ co-owner, Kiran Grandhi as quoted by India Today was not pleased with this decision. He said during a post-auction interaction that they had missed out on a talent and such errors were ones that could have been avoided.
“This is a significant oversight, and it cost us the chance to secure a promising talent,” said Grandhi.
Chikara is a 19-year-old opening batter who was in the 2024 edition of UPT20. The uncapped talent finished the tournament as the highest run-scorer for the season with 499 runs in 12 innings at an average of 49.9 for the Meerut Mavericks who went on to win the title by beating the Kanpur Superstars by five wickets and two balls to spare in September, earlier this year.
Nonetheless, DC missed out on a potential talent who could have pushed for a starting spot in the 11 for the upcoming IPL season. Delhi Capitals finished the auction with 23 players in their squad. Their top purchases include KL Rahul, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan and many more and are amongst the best-looking squads ahead of the new season.
The Delhi Capitals will look ahead to the new season where they aim to end their long-standing wait for their maiden IPL title with their new squad.
