Who is Karthik Sharma? CSK spent Rs 14.2 crore on this 19 year old uncapped wicketkeeper

By Samira Vishwas On Dec 24, 2025

Karthik Sharma’s bidding started from the base price of Rs 30 lakh. Initially there was a contest between Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders, but as soon as CSK entered, the bidding quickly crossed Rs 10 crore. Sunrisers Hyderabad also intervened in the last round, however in the end CSK won Karthik by bidding Rs 14.2 crore.

With this purchase, Karthik Sharma has become the joint most expensive uncapped player in IPL auction history. Interestingly, in the same auction, CSK also bought Prashant Veer for Rs 14.2 crore, thereby creating the record for Chennai having the two most expensive uncapped players.

Karthik Sharma is a right-handed batsman and is also considered very effective in wicketkeeping. He made a strong entry in senior cricket by scoring a century in the debut match against Uttarakhand in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy. After this, in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25, he was the top scorer of Rajasthan by scoring 445 runs in 9 matches at an average of 55.62.

Recently, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy also, Karthik had scored 133 runs in 5 innings. Earlier, he also had centuries in his name against Delhi and Mumbai in Ranji Trophy. Talking about his T20 career, he has so far scored 334 runs in 12 matches at an average of 30.36, his strike rate is 162.92 and he has hit 28 sixes.

In the IPL 2026 auction, Chennai Super Kings looked calm in the beginning, but as soon as the uncapped players came into the set, the team became completely aggressive. Apart from Karthik Sharma and Prashant Veer, at the time of writing the news, CSK bought West Indies all-rounder Akeal Hosein at the base price of Rs 2 crore and currently the purse of Rs 13 crore is left.