A maximum of 87 players can be bought at the auction (squad strength of 25 each) of which 30 can be overseas names. The auction is scheduled on December 23 in Kochi.
A total of 991 players (714 Indian and 277 overseas) are part of the initial long list which the IPL shared with the 10 franchises on Thursday. The IPL will prune this down based on input from the franchises, who have until December 9 to get back to the tournament authorities.
In what is a first, not one Indian player is listed in the highest reserve price band of 2 crore. The list of 19 capped Indians mainly comprises discarded national players including Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma and Mayank Agarwal.
Rahane was released by Kolkata Knight Riders having bought him for 1 crore in the last auction. His base price this time is 50 lakh. Ishant, who had gone unsold in 2022, is asking for 75 lakh.
Agarwal was the first player to be retained ahead of the mega auction last year by Punjab Kings and was also handed captaincy of the team. However, a below par season, both for the player and the franchise, forced Kings to release Agarwal, who had been paid 14 crore last season.
Focus on Curran, Stokes, Green
The most keenly awaited part of an IPL auction – mega or mini – has been the order in which a player’s name comes out for bidding. And usually franchises pay a lot of attention, and money to the marquee names*. It is fair to assume that Curran, Stokes, Williamson and Pooran will be part of this set along with probably Agarwal.
Overseas allrouders have always been a mega hit at mini auctions and the in-form trio of Curran, Stokes and Green will fancy a fat pay cheque as an early Christmas present on December 23. While Green has never featured in IPL, the England duo have significant experience.
The year 2021 was also the last time Stokes played the IPL. Representing Rajastthan Royals, Stokes left the season at the halfway stage due to an injury. Royals had bought Stokes for 12.5. crore in 2018 and had retained him for the next three years. In 2022, Stokes opted out of the IPL.
Notable misses
The 2 crore band: Nathan Coulter-Nile, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Jamie Overton, Craig Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Kane Williamson, Rilee Rossouw, Rassie van der Dussen, Angelo Mathews, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder
The 1.5 crore band: Sean Abbott, Riley Meredith, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Shakib Al Hasan, Harry Brook, Will Jacks, Dawid Malan, Jason Roy, Sherfane Rutherford
The 1 crore band: Mayank Agarwal, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Moises Henriques, Andrew Tye, Joe Root, Luke Wood, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Heinrich Klaasen, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kusal Perera, Roston Chase, Rakheem Cornwall, Shai Hope, Akeal Hossein, David Wiese
*The earlier version had said the marquee set opens the mini auction, which is not the case.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo
