NEW DELHI: Among the 1,574 players who have signed up for the IPL super auction, which will take place in Jeddah on November 24 and 25, are former England pacer James Anderson, Italian quick Thomas Draca, and India-born USA medium pacer Saurabh Netravalkar.
Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, R Ashwin, and Yuzvendra Chahal are among the top Indian players that were released from their squads; the list will be trimmed once the franchises provide their inputs.
The base price given for each of these five cricket players is Rs 2 crore.
Both left-arm bowler Arshdeep Singh and India’s Mohammed Shami, who has been out of action since last November owing to a variety of injuries, were released by their teams and have listed themselves at Rs 2 crore.
The other Indian players on the list, including Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan, Deepak Chahar, Ishan Kishan, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, have a maximum base price of Rs 2 crore.
Mohammed Siraj, Devdutt Padikkal, Krunal Pandya, Harshal Patel, Prasidh Krishna, T Natarajan, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, and Shardul Thakur are also on this list.
Sarfaraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw, two Indian batsmen who were not sold in the last IPL auction, have each registered at the base price of Rs 75 lakh.
After retiring from Test cricket earlier this year, the 42-year-old Anderson has signed up for the IPL for the first time. The seasoned pacer last played a Twenty20 match in 2014. He hasn’t participated in any international franchise T20 leagues. The base price for him is Rs 1.25 crore.
Netravalkar, who gained prominence for his incredible performance for the United States at the T20 World Cup earlier this year, is also scheduled to go under the hammer in Jeddah. The base salary for the Oracle software engineer is Rs 30 lakh.
Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon who was not sold at past auctions, has also entered the race with a starting price of Rs 2 crore.
Mitchell Starc, an Australian pacer who cost Rs 24.50 crore at the last IPL auction, is back in the running for this year’s auction with a base price of Rs 2 crore.
England pacer Jofra Archer who last competed in the 2023 edition, is likewise priced at the same base level.
Medium pacer Thomas Draca is the first Italian player to sign up for the IPL. Since earning his Italy debut in June of this year, the 24-year-old has participated in four T20 Internationals.
His latest performance at the Global T20 Canada in August was impressive. With 11 wickets from six innings at an average of 10.63 and an economy of 6.88, Draca was tied for the second-highest number of wickets taken during the tournament.
The Mumbai Indians-owned MI Emirates has recruited the Italian bowler for the forthcoming ILT20 season in the United Arab Emirates.
Draca has registered himself in the all-rounders’ category at a base price of Rs 30 lakh.
IPL teams can assemble a squad of 25 players apiece, with up to six players allowed to be retained prior to the super auction. After 10 teams collectively retained 46 players, there will be 204 spots available.
With Punjab Kings having Rs 110.5 crore on hand, Royal Challengers Bengaluru having Rs 83 crore, Delhi Capitals having Rs 73 crore, and Gujarat Titans having Rs 69 crore, each team would have a total fund of Rs 120 crore.
Five-time champions Chennai Super Kings will have Rs 55 crore, while the Lucknow Super Giants will also have Rs 69 crore.
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians will get Rs 45 crore, the runners-up from the previous season, Sunrisers Hyderabad, will have Rs 45 crore, and the Rajasthan Royals will have Rs 41 crore. Last year’s winners, the Kolkata Knight Riders, will enter the auction with Rs 51 crore.
