A whopping 1122 players including the likes of Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh, Joe Root and Shane Watson have signed up on expected lines to be part of the upcoming IPL auction, the BCCI announced on Saturday.
The auction, scheduled to take place in Bengaluru on January 27 and 28, will also see India's Gautam Gambhir, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav and openers KL Rahul and M Vijay go under the hammer.
The list, sent out to the eight IPL franchises, has 281 capped players, 838 uncapped players, including 778 Indians and three players from the Associate nations, a BCCI release stated.
About 282 overseas -- 58 from Australia, 57 from South Africa, 39 each from Sri Lanka and West Indies, 30 from New Zealand, and 26 from England have registered for the auction.
Again, hoping to show his full range of strokes in this edition's IPL will be Glenn Maxwell along with Mitchell Johnson, who bowled Mumbai Indians to their third title last season with his final over heroics.
England's Test captain, Root, has also thrown his hat in the ring along with big names like Ben Stokes, Chris Lynn, Eoin Morgan and pacers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.
Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite, Evin Lewis and Jason Holder will add the Caribbean flavor to the auction.
Hashim Amla, who hit two centuries for Kings XI Punjab in the 10th season, will be hoping for a high bid with compatriots Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, David Miller and speedsters Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada.
Kane Williamson, Colin Munro and Tom Latham from New Zealand will add the Kiwi charm.
Afghanistan, too, will see 13 players along with eight from Bangladesh, two from Ireland, seven from Zimbabwe and two from the USA.
IMAGE: Chris Gayle
Photograph: BCCI
