The Indian Premier League mini auction on Thursday is set to be action-packed with over 290 cricketers up for grabs.
Before the players goes under the hammer in Chennai, here are a few batsmen who are expected to pique the interest of the franchises on Thursday.
Dawid Malan (Base Price INR 1.5 cr)
He is ICC’s top-ranked batsmen in T20s and is yet to feature in the cash-rich tournament. Dawid Malan, the England batsman will be target of most teams, especially the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who are looking for a replacement for former Australian cricketer Shane Watson.
Alex Hales (Base Price INR 1.5 cr)
A flamboyant right-handed batsman, Alex Hales, who smashed 543 runs at a strike-rate of 161.60 in his recent outing in the Big Bash League (BBL) will be on the radar of franchise heads at the auction.
Alex Carey (Base Price INR 1.5 cr)
The Australian wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey had to unfortunately warm the bench for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2020 despite coming into the tournament on the back of a match-winning hundred against England in September last year.
Carey whacked a 62-ball century against Brisbane Heat in the recently concluded BBL. The classy left-hander has been released by Delhi Capitals ahead of the auction and will a good pick in the middle order.
Mohammed Azharuddeen (Base Price INR 20 Lakhs)
Kerala's Mohammed Azharuddeen hogged the limelight when he smashed a 37-ball century to guide his side to an eight-wicket victory over Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match in January.
The wicket-keeper batsman can be key to any IPL franchise considering his ability to score some quick runs at the top.
Shahrukh Khan (Base Price INR 20 lakhs)
Tamil Nadu's swashbuckling batsman Shahrukh Khan might have smashed a customary 18 runs off seven balls in the finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but he played a key role when the side was struggling to even qualify for the semi-finals.
Shahrukh slammed 40 runs in 19 balls to rescue Tamil Nadu against Himachal Pradesh in the quarter-finals as the Dinesh Karthik-led side chased down the target with 13 balls to spare. Sharukh could be well on the CSK watchlist considering the yellow army had a poor show with the bat in the last year's edition.
