Top draws of IPL auction getting ready
Indranil Basu,TNN | Jan 12, 2014, 06.31 PM IST
NEW DELHI:
The IPL teams are all set to enter the melee of star player auctions this season. Among the top foreign cricketers up for sale next month in Bangalore are the likes of David Warner, Kevin Pietersen, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Quinton de Cock, Corey Anderson, Steve Smith, Aaron Flinch, Faf du Plesis, Morne Morkel and Dwain Smith. Each of these players are expected to fetch a good premium.
India players like Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Murali Vijay would also be up for grabs. And the teams have set aside big budgets for them. "It is going to be real competitive for sure and some of the Indian cricketers like Yuvarj and Vijay will surely get a good price," a top IPL official said, adding that the Indian board will start talking with the players before deciding their base price next week.
The top draws of Indian batting like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina and Gautam Gambhir have already been retained by their teams. And among the foreigners, Chris Gayle, Ab de Villers and Shane Watson have also retained their places.
In the fast bowling department, South Africa's Dale Steyn (Sunrisers), Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga (Mumbai) and Australia's James Faulker (Rajasthan Royals) are still on the rolls. However, none of the Indian pacer bowlers figure in the retention list. From from veteran Zaheer Khan to Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Vinay Kumar, are all available in the auction.
In the spin-department the story is somewhat different. Top offies — Harbhajan Singh (Mumbai) and R Ashwin (Chennai) — have been retained. West Indies' Sunil Narine is the only foreign spinner retained by Kolkata Knight Riders.
In the allrounder category, teams have also retained Indian cricketers like Stuart Binny and Ravindra Jadeja while the foreigners' list has Mumbai's Kieron Pollard and Chennai's Dwayne Bravo. IPL says that the teams can buy more allrounders from the auction.
The governing body of the richest T20 league seems optimistic about the auction. "There are enough players to buy for the teams, who are looking to form a good team," a top IPL official said.
