IPL 2019 auction: 346 players to go under the hammer

The final list of players for the upcoming 2019 Indian Premier League auctions which will be held in Jaipur on December 18 and 19 has been shortlisted. From an initial pool of 1003 players, 346 will be in the final list of the auction. Out of the 346, 213 players will have a base price of Rs 20 lakhs while a total of 38 players will be in the elite base price range of Rs 1 crore to 2 crore. The event will see cricketers from nine states – Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Puducherry register for the first time in history and this auction will be a showcase in the depth of talent available in the Indian cricket team. A total of 70 spots are vacant for the next season of the IPL.

A total of 232 players are from overseas and out of that, the maximum number is from South Africa with 59. Australia is next with 35 players followed by the West Indies with 33. Afghanistan has 27 players registered for the auction. No Indian players are in the Rs 2 crore base price while only nine players, all of them overseas are in the elite base price range.

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Out of the nine players, the franchisees might be tempted to get England all-rounder Sam Curran in the side. Curran was one of the stand-out players in the recent series against India which England won 4-1. His timely contributions with the bat lower down the order, combined with his wicket-taking ability, make him a valuable asset. Apart from Curran, the other notable name in the Rs 2-crore list is Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga. Malinga, who has played for Mumbai Indians, was not retained by the side in the last couple of seasons but last year, he was the bowling mentor of the side.

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Jaydev Unadkat, who became the highest Indian to be bid in the auction last year with Rs 11.4 crore, has the highest base price of Rs 1.5 crore. The other big names in the list like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Shami are priced at Rs 1 crore.

Wriddhiman Saha and Axar Patel are the others in the Rs 1 crore list while Ishant Sharma is priced at Rs 75 lakhs.

Cricket Australia announced that most of the players will miss close to two-three weeks in the Indian Premier League as they had to prepare for the World Cup. This has resulted in names like Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch opting out of the auction. Maxwell was part of the Delhi Daredevils side, now renamed as Delhi Capitals while Finch was part of the Kings XI Punjab side.