Also, ten uncapped players added to auction list on auction eve, including ambidextrous Australian spinner Nivethan Radhakrishnan
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Nagraj Gollapudi and Gaurav Sundararaman15 hrs ago
Deepak Hooda, who made his India debut earlier this week in the ODI series against West Indies, has been moved up the IPL auction ladder having now become a capped player. In the revised auction list, which also featured ten new names, Hooda features in Set No. 3 comprising allrounders.
Hooda, originally listed in Set No. 8, has upgraded his base price from INR 40 lakh (USD 53,000 approx) to INR 75 lakh (USD 99,000 approx).
On Friday evening, the IPL distributed the updated player list of 600 names to the franchises. The 10 new, uncapped players include: Aaron Hardie, Lance Morris, Nivethan Radhakrishnan (all Australia), Agnivesh Ayachi, Hardik Tamore, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mihir Hirwani, Monu Kumar, Rohan Rana, Sairaj Patil (all India).
The two-day IPL auction will take place in Bengaluru behind closed doors on February 12 and 13. As per the auction schedule, a total of 97 players (up to Set No. 11) will be put up for bidding on Saturday. The first six sets comprising 54 names will feature capped players, including the opening set of ten marquee names, with the remaining five sets on the day being uncapped players.
Players 98 to 161 will be up until lunch on Sunday. The accelerated bidding begins after lunch on Sunday, from 162.
Where will the IPL be played?
At the pre-auction briefing on Friday, the IPL also told the franchises that the venues for the tournament would be finalised by the third week of February. The 2022 edition is likely to begin from March 27 and run until last week of May.
Recently the BCCI had pencilled in Mumbai and possibly Pune as the first-choice venues, subject to getting relevant government permissions.
Radhakrishnan, the ambidextrous spinner
Nivethan Radhakrishnan, the only known male ambidextrous spinner in representative Australian cricket, turned out for his country in the just-concluded Under-19 World Cup in the West Indies. His three-for and half-century against Afghanistan in the quarter-finals won him the Player-of-the-Match award and secured Australia’s passage into the semi-final.
Radhakrishnan also has a rookie contract with Tasmania and has bowled to top batters even outside Australia. He has been a net bowler in the Tamil Nadu Premier League for two seasons, and once under Ricky Ponting’s watch for Delhi Capitals in the IPL.
Radhakrishnan has also batted at various positions – at the top, in the middle, right at the end – in representative cricket, and he can bowl seam-up as well.
With inputs from Sreshth Shah