Root, Rahane among IPL marquee players
India stars R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan were named among 16 marquee players in the list released on Saturday for the much-anticipated Indian Premier League 2018 Player Auction.
The marquee players, from India and overseas, including England captain Joe Root and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, headline the 578 players who will go under the hammer in Bangalore on January 27-28.
With 18 players retained, 182 slots are up for grabs.
IPL veterans, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh are included in the top 16, with all three opting for the highest base price of ~2 crore.
Prithvi Shah, the young Mumbai batsman and India U-19 World Cup skipper, is also in the fray. He has a base price of ~20 lakh.
A total of 62 capped Indians and 298 uncapped Indians will vie for the available slots with 182 capped overseas cricketers, 34 uncapped overseas players and two cricketers from the Associate Nations.
With ~2 crore as the highest reserve price, 36 players, including 13 Indians, have opted for the top bracket.
Some of the other marquee players are Chris Gayle, Ben Stokes, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Shakib Al Hasan – each priced at ~2 crore.
M Vijay, KL Rahul, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Yuzvendra Chahal and Karn Sharma have also set their base price at ~2 crore and will hope to attract high bids as the eight franchises look to build their teams.
South Africa’s new pace sensation Lungi Ngudi is also in the fray, at a base price of ~50 lakh. Test cricket’s top-ranked bowler Kagiso Rabada has kept his base price at ~1.5 crore.
IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla said in the statement: “A lot of strategising and number-crunching is involved before a cricketer is picked. The marquee list is full of star players, but I am also looking forward to the uncapped Indian players who have proved their mettle in earlier editions and are sure to attract high bids.”