Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada are among a notably high list of 49 players who have registered for the Indian Premier League 2022 mega auction with a maximum base prize sum of INR 2 crores, stated a report in ESPNcricinfo.
Apart from these four, Australian internationals David Warner and Mitchell Marsh, another of the T20 World Cup 2021 heroes, Quinton de Kock, Shikhar Dhawan and Faf du Plessis are also part of the list, which features 17 Indian and 32 overseas stars.
While the Indian section features Ashwin, Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suresh Raina, Ishan Kishan among others who have parted ways with their former franchises, the overseas contingent also includes Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Steven Smith, Shakib Al Hasan, Mark Wood and Trent Boult.
A whopping total of 1,214 cricketers have registered for the much-awaited IPL 2022 mega auction, to be held in Bangalore on February 12 and 13. These players make for a pool of newly registered, unretained and unsigned cricketers by the 10 franchises, including the two new sides based in Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
This list, as is the ritual, will be trimmed further by the IPL governing council around two days before the mega auction. Franchises can also send their wish lists, depending on the players they are interested in. Currently, the list of registered players includes 270 capped players, 312 uncapped players and 41 players from the associate countries.
The ten IPL franchises opted to keep a pool of 33 cricketers with them before entering the mega auction – 27 retained by existing eight sides and three each signed by two new teams before the auction. This has taken a hit on their purse ahead of the auction, where they will now have to create or reconstruct their entire squad with a limited budget.
But it was important for teams to retain some of the core group that has given them immense success over the years, with one eye on the future. With Lucknow and Ahmedabad, it was a case of them finding the right set of three players to build their first XIs and squads around. That is why those two sides have looked to cover as many bases, with a maximum allowance of three pre-auction signings, including a cap of one overseas cricketer.
Lucknow have signed Indian batter KL Rahul (17 crores) as their captain along with Australian allrounder Marcus Stoinis (9.2 crores) and uncapped wrists-pinner Ravi Bishnoi (4 crores).
Ahmedabad, in turn, have bought in premier Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya as a skipper for INR 15 crores, the same amount they have offered to ace wrist-spinner Rashid Khan, with Shubman Gill being their third signing for a sum of INR 8 crores.
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All eyes will be on Cummins, Warner, Iyer, Ashwin among potential candidates who can also double up as captains. This year’s mega auction has multiple sides which lack a definite captain at this stage heading into the tournament, thus a wave of expectation around those players.
While Warner led Sunrisers Hyderabad to IPL 2016 trophy, Iyer was Delhi Capitals’ skipper when they made the final of the 2020 edition. Ashwin also has captaincy experience under his belt in Premier League via his time with the Punjab franchise. Cummins hasn’t led an IPL side but was named the full-time Australian Test captain.
Focus is also on a list of unregistered players, which notably features big names such as Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes. These players have decided to skip the IPL 2022 for a variety of reasons, including an excessively busy international calendar.
