IPL: 333 players shortlisted for December 19 auction

IPL 2024 Auction:

After the successful conclusion of the Women's Premier League Auction in Mumbai on December 9, the focus shifts to Dubai as the IPL 2024 auction approaches on December 19. The list of potential cricket superstars up for bidding has been narrowed down to 333 players, down from the initial pool of 1166 players. Some highlights of the shortlisted players include:

• Travis Head, Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc, all likely to attract significant attention, are among the first sets of players in their respective categories (capped batters, allrounders, and bowlers, respectively) to be up for bidding.
• Rachin Ravindra, the World Cup's breakout star, has listed his base price at INR 50 lakh and is expected to attract considerable interest.
• Out of the 333 shortlisted players, 119 are overseas players, including two from Associate nations - Netherlands' fast bowler Paul van Meekeren and Namibia's player 2.
• Prominent Indian names in the capped sets include Shardul Thakur, Harshal Patel, Manish Pandey, and Umesh Yadav.
• While Ben Stokes will not be available for the IPL 2024.

The auction will begin with capped players, starting with batters, followed by allrounders, wicketkeepers, fast bowlers, and spinners in the listed order. The same sequence will be followed for the uncapped players.

Gujarat Titans have the highest purse of INR 38.15 crore for the IPL 2024 auction, followed by Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders with INR 34 crore and INR 32.7 crore, respectively. This is due to the hefty amount acquired by Gujarat Titans through the transfer of Hardik Pandya to Mumbai Indians. Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals are optimistic about the return of Rishabh Pant as captain in IPL 2024. Having missed the 2023 season due to injuries from a car crash in December 2022, Pant is expected to be fully fit by the end of February.