New Delhi: Senior spinner Harbhajan Singh and middle-order batsman Kedar Jadhav have been bracketed in the Rs 2 crore highest base price category for the upcoming IPL auction. The auctions will take place February 18 in Chennai. Australians Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell have also been included in the same segment. Others foreigners who have found a place in the Rs 2 crore segment are Shakib-al-Hasan, Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Liam Plunkett, Jason Roy and Mark Wood.
There will be 292 players, who will go under the hammer, with 61 slots in eight franchises up for grabs. The IPL governing council has pruned the list of players. A total of 164 Indian players, 125 overseas players and three from associate nations have been enlisted for the auctions.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have highest the number of 13 slots available while Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have only three vacancies.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) go into the auction with the highest purse (Rs 53.1 crore) while SRH can spend a little less than Rs 11 crore (Rs 10.75 crore). CSK will have an interesting auction with a Rs 22.7 crore purse and seven slots to fill. Both Harbhajan and Jadhav were released by CSK this year.
Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun, a left-arm fast bowler, has also been included in the pruned list. He is in the lowest base price category of Rs 20 lakh. No doubt, his father will be a proud man if Arjun gets a team.
There are 12 players with a base price of Rs 1.5 crore. Indian batsman Hanuma Vihari and fast bowler Umesh Yadav are in the third bracket with a base price of Rs 1 crore.
The auction will start at 15.00 hours IST.