Ben Stokes is among the top bracket of players expected to go under the hammer for the IPL © AFP
England’s Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan and Chris Woakes are among the seven players who have listed themselves at the highest base price of INR 2 crore (approx US $298,000) for the IPL player auction scheduled in Bangalore on February 20. India fast bowler Ishant Sharma, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, and the Australian pair of Mitchell Johnson and Pat Cummings are the rest of the players in this set.
A total of 799 players are part of the initial roster which would be pruned once the franchises submit their choices before the deadline this weekend. There are 160 capped players from eight countries – leaving out Bangladesh and Pakistan – and 639 from five countries – India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies.
Considering they will have to put a majority of their players back into the auction in 2018, some franchise officials said they would not be too aggressive in buying players this season. However, they did agree that there would be considerable interest in the English players.
More to follow
Nagraj Gollapudi is a senior assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo