After going unsold in IPL 2025 auction, KS Bharat to play club cricket in England

India wicketkeeper-batter  KS Bharat is set to represent the London-based Dulwich Cricket Club for the 2025 Surrey Championship campaign. Despite a decent record at the first-class level, the Andhra Pradesh batterhas struggled to find a spot in red-ball format for the Indian team. Bharat has scored 5686 runs, including 10 centuries and 32 fifties, in 105 first-class matches.

While the chances of Bharat's international comeback look bleak, the 31-year-old is grinding himself to make a mark in the format as he is exploring opportunities to display himself. The Surrey Championship, a division 1 tournament, will be a chance for Bharat to make an impact and grab the attention of the selectors. 

Bharat's last Test for India came at Visakhapatnam during the five-match home series against England in 2024, which India won 4-1 with Bharat playing only the first two games. Overall, he has played seven Tests, having scored 221 runs at an average of 20.09.

Notably, Bharat was a part of India's 2023 World Test Championship final team, which lost the summit clash to Pat Cummins-led Australia at the Oval. The opportunities for Bharat dried up with the return of Rishabh Pant and the emergence of the young and upcoming Dhruv Jurel. 

Bharat went unsold in IPL mega-auction 

Apart from being left out of the Test team, Bharat, who had a base price of INR 75 Lakh, found no takers in the IPL 2025 mega auction held in November last year. Though he has had some decent performances in the tournament, having represented the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in 2023 and the Delhi Capitals (DC) in 2024, he went unsold in this season's auction. 

His best performance in the franchise tournament came against Delhi Capitals where he helped RCB chase down a total of 165 by scoring an unbeaten 78 off 52 deliveries.