Ben Stokes missing from IPL’s list of 1,574 players ahead of mega auction

MUMBAI: England's Ben Stokes is missing from the long list of 1,574 players while former pacer James Anderson has registered himself at a base price of Rs 1.25 crore ahead of the IPL mega auction to be held in Jeddah on November 24 and 25.

The list, which will be shortened after the franchises provide their inputs, has all the marquee Indian players who were released from their teams including Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Each of these players have listed themselves at a base price of Rs 2 crore.

India quick Mohammed Shami, who has been sidelined from action due to various injuries since last November, was also released by his former team Gujarat Titans and has listed himself at Rs 2 crore as has left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh.

Among the other Indian players with the maximum base price of Rs 2 crore are Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan, Deepak Chahar, Ishan Kishan, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

This list also includes Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Devdutt Padikkal, Krunal Pandya, Harshal Patel, Prasidh Krishna, T Natarajan, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar and Umesh Yadav.

India batters Sarfaraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw, who were unsold in the last IPL auction, have registered themselves at the base price of Rs 75 lakh.

Stokes decided to give the last season of the IPL a miss in order to manage his workload and focus on his fitness.

The 42-year-Anderson, who retired from Test cricket earlier this year, has registered for the IPL for the first time. The veteran pacer last played a T20 10 years ago in 2014. He has never competed in a global franchise T20 league.

Ace Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon, who has gone unsold in previous auctions, has also entered the fray with the a base price of Rs 2 crore.

Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, who was the most expensive buy in the IPL's last auction at a price of Rs 24.50 crore, is back in the pool for this year's auction with a base price of Rs 2 crore.

England quick Jofra Archer, who last played in the 2023 edition, is also listed for the same base price.

With up to six players permitted to be retained ahead of the mega auction, IPL teams can build a squad of 25 players each and there will be 204 slots available after 46 players were retained by 10 teams put together.

Each team will have a total purse of Rs 120 crore as Punjab Kings have the biggest purse of Rs 110.5 crore, followed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru with Rs 83 crore, Delhi Capitals with Rs 73 crore and Gujarat Titans with Rs 69 crore.

Lucknow Super Giants will also have Rs 69 crore in their purse while five-time winners Chennai Super Kings will have Rs 55 crore.

Last year’s winners Kolkata Knight Riders will come into the auction with Rs 51 crore in purse while five-time champions Mumbai Indians will have Rs 45 crore, last year’s runner-up Sunrisers Hyderabad will have Rs 45 crore and Rajasthan Royals will have Rs 41 crore.