The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 auction which is all set to be held in Chennai on February 18 saw 1097 players (814 Indian and 283 overseas players) registering their names to be a part of the 14th edition of the tournament.
The IPL Auction will begin from 3 PM onwards and the players' list includes 207 capped, 863 uncapped and 27 Associate players.
According to a report published in ESPNcricinfo, Mitchell Starc is not among the 42 players from Australia in the list of players registered. The left-arm pacer last featured in the IPL in 2015 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
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Since the T20 World Cup is slated to take place later this year in India, Starc was expected to be a part of the cash-rich league. However, the global event will be followed by a home Ashes series and the speedster may have taken this decision to manage his workload.
Another notable cricketer who didn’t register his name for the second IPL in a row is England skipper Joe Root, who registered his third consecutive Test ton in the series opener against India at Chepauk on February 5. Harry Gurney and Tom Banton are the other Englishmen who didn’t register their names.
James Pattinson, who played a key role in Mumbai Indians' triumphant IPL 2020 campaign, has opted out as well. He is reportedly taking a break after a long summer spent in bio-bubble.
On the other hand, Shakib Al Hasan and Sreesanth are in the list, having served their suspensions earlier. Shakib is reportedly one of the 11 players to be listed at the highest base price of INR 2 crore while Sreesanth has set his base price at INR 75 lakh.
As per the report, other players who have listed their base price at INR 2 crore include Kedar Jadhav, Harbhajan Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Liam Plunkett, Jason Roy, Mark Wood and Colin Ingram.
Among others, Dawid Malan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Alex Carey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Swepson, Tom Curran, Lewis Gregory, Alex Hales, Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid and David Willey have all listed their base prices at INR 1.5 crore.
The likes of Aaron Finch, Umesh Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Marnus Labuschagne and Sheldon Cottrell feature in the INR 1 crore base price section.
Coming to the capped Indian players, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Shivam Dube and Varun Aaron have registered their names with a base price of INR 50 lakh.
Meanwhile, legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar, who recently represented Mumbai in a couple of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches, has also registered for the auction at a base price of INR 20 lakh.
Notably, 61 players can be picked up at the auction if every franchise chose to have the maximum of 25 players in their squad (of which up to 22 may be overseas players).
(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)
