A total of 350 cricketers, including 240 Indians, will go under the hammer in the IPL auction scheduled for December 16 in Abu Dhabi, with South Africa’s comeback man Quinton de Kock a surprise late addition to the final list.
Wicketkeeper-batter De Kock, who recently came out of his ODI retirement, has been kept at a base price of Rs 1 crore. The list also includes Australia’s Steve Smith at a base price of Rs 2 crore; Smith last played in the IPL in 2021.
A total of 1,390 players had registered for the Player Auction. This number was pruned to 1,005 before 350 were finally shortlisted to compete for 77 available slots, including 31 for overseas players, across the 10 teams in the 19th edition of the world’s biggest T20 league.
The first set of players in the auction features Indian batters Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan, both with a base price of Rs 75 lakh each. “Shaw had a regular run in the IPL from 2018 to 2024 but had gone unsold in the auction for the last edition,” the IPL noted, while “Sarfaraz has not played in the competition since 2021.”
The IPL list also includes Australians Cameron Green and Jake Fraser-McGurk, New Zealand’s former Chennai Super Kings opener Devon Conway, and South Africa’s David Miller, each with a base price of Rs 2 crore.
Venkatesh Iyer, released by Kolkata Knight Riders, has listed himself at a base price of Rs 2 crore. Among domestic players, Kunal Chandela and Ashok Kumar—leading run-getters and wicket-takers, respectively, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy—also make the final list.
Three-time winners KKR will go into the auction with the biggest purse of Rs 64.3 crore, followed by five-time champions CSK with Rs 43.4 crore. Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have won the IPL once, have the third-highest purse of Rs 25.5 crore.
As many as 21 England players are part of the auction, including wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith, pacer Gus Atkinson, Liam Livingstone, and Test opener Ben Duckett. Green, expected to garner significant attention, leads the list of 19 Australians, with Josh Inglis, Matthew Short, Cooper Connolly, and Beau Webster also among the prominent names.
De Kock and Miller are among 15 Proteas players in the IPL auction, alongside fast bowlers Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Gerald Coetzee, and all-rounder Wiaan Mulder. Fast bowlers Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph, along with Ackeem Auguste, Shai Hope, and Roston Chase, are among the nine West Indies players in the auction.
Sri Lankan spinners Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, and Traveen Matthew are among a dozen players from the island nation, along with batters Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, and Kusal Perera. Conway and Rachin Ravindra, released by CSK, are part of the 16 New Zealand players, while Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Naveen ul Haq feature among 10 players from Afghanistan.
