NEW DELHI – Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Chris Gayle are some among the 282overseas players and a total of 1122 cricketers who will be up for grabs inthe Indian Premier Leaguelink>(IPL)auction to be held on January 27 and 28 in Bengaluru.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Saturday that58 players from Australia, 57 from South Africa, 30 from New Zealand and 26players from England will be participating in the IPLlink> auction.
Other than that, there are 39 Sri Lankans, 39 West Indians, 13 fromAfghanistan and 8 and 7 players from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the list.
Mitchell Starc, who ended his association with the Royal ChallengersBangalore (RCB) ahead of the last IPLlink>,too has entered the auction that also includes Chris Lynn, Pat Cummins,Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite, Evin Lewis and Jason Holder.
Hashim Amla, Kagiso Rabada, Faf du Plessis and Morne Morkel are some of theSouth Africans, who are also part of the list.
The in-form Glenn Maxwell and Shane Watson, who was mulling calling time onhis IPL career last year, too have entered the race with Mitchell Johnson,who has retired from international cricket but continues to play in the BigBash League.
Lasith Malinga, whose form has taken a considerable dip in the last year orso, too will be part of the auction apart from his Sri Lanka mates AngeloMathews and Niroshan Dickwella.
Kane Williamson, Colin Munro and Tom Latham from New Zealand will add theircharm to the league.
Among the Indians, a fierce bidding war is expected to break out whenGautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, off-spinners Ravichandran Ashwin andHarbhajan Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav and openersLokesh Rahul and Murali Vijay go under the hammer.
The full list has already been sent out to the eight franchises.
There are a total of 281 capped players, 838 uncapped players, which alsoincludes 778 Indian players, apart from three players from Associatenations. Agencies