The Indian Premier League (IPL) keeps getting bigger with every edition as the cash-rich T20 event is all set to witness a whopping 1,122 players, the most ever in its 11-year history, to go under the hammer at the upcoming player auction later this month.
The mega IPL auction scheduled to take place in Bengaluru on January 27-28 with England's Test captain Joe Root also throwing his hat into the ring and will be the latest entrant to the world's most popular T20 league.
The list that has been 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 fierce bidding war is expected to break out when Indian stars Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, off spinners R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav and openers KL Rahul and M Vijay go under the hammer.
The franchises will do everything when Chris Gayle, Ben Stokes, Chris Lynn, Eoin Morgan and pacers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins come up for VIVO IPL Player Auction 2018. Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite, Evin Lewis and Jason Holder will add the Caribbean flavour to the league.
Lasith Malinga will lead Sri Lanka's entourage that includes Angelo Mathews, the exciting Niroshan Dickwella, and Thisara Perera. Showing his full range of strokes will be Glenn Maxwell, all-rounder Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson, who bowled Mumbai Indians to their third title last season with his final over heroics.
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 their charm to the league.
