As many as 1,214 players registered for the IPL 2022 auction, to be held on 12 and 13 February in Bengaluru. Out of them, 896 are from India, and the rest overseas. Among notable absentees are Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Mitchell Starc, Sam Curran and Chris Gayle.
Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, David Warner, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult and Pat Cummins are likely to fetch big bucks. Bidding wars are also expected for Indian fast bowlers Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel and Avesh Khan.
The IPL will be a 10-team tournament from this year. Ahmedabad and Lucknow, the two new franchises, named their captains on 21 January. While Hardik Pandya will lead the Ahmedabad franchise, K.L. Rahul has been announced as the captain of the Lucknow team.
Of the registered players, 270 are capped, 903 uncapped and 41 from Associate Nations. A total of 33 players have been retained or picked ahead of the auction by the 10 teams. The existing eight IPL franchises have retained 27 players, while the two new teams have picked six others ahead of the auction.