Shakib, Mustafiz in maximum base price of IPL 2022 auction

Bangladesh ace allrounder Shakib Al Hasan and pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman have listed their base price at the maximum of INR 2 crore (US $ 269,000 approx and 2.31 crore BDT approx) for the 2022 mega IPL auction.
 
The two-day long IPL auction will be held on February 12 and 13 at Bangalore. A total of nine Bangladeshi players registered their names for the auction.

 
Shakib and Mustafizur have been the top performer of the IPL for sometimes now and both of them got the taste of IPL trophies with their respective side. Shakib won IPL trophy two times with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) while Mustafizur on his debut IPL season won the trophy with Sunrisers Hyderabad. Mustafizur even became the first overseas player to be the best emerging player of the year in IPL in 2016.
 
Mustafizur in fact was the only shining spot of Rajasthan Royals' terrible IPL campaign in the last season. Shakib however was off colour with KKR in the last season.
 
A total of 49 players, including 17 Indians and 32 overseas players set their base price at maximum, according to popular cricket website ESPNcricinfo. Among the notable absentees from the initial longlist are Mitchell Starc, Sam Curran, Ben Stokes, Chris Gayle, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes.
 
Overall, a total of 1214 cricketers, including 270 capped players, 312 uncapped players and 41 from Associate teams, have registered for the auction, and the list was sent to the ten franchises on Friday. A final, trimmed list will be prepared by the IPL governing council closer to the two-day auction, once the franchises send back their wishlists.
 
This will be the first mega auction conducted by the IPL since 2018, when the tournament featured eight teams. This auction, there are two more teams after the IPL sold two new franchises - to be based in Lucknow and in Ahmedabad - last October for record sums. The ten franchises have already spent nearly INR 338 crore (US$ 45 million approx.) to retain and acquire 33 players.
 
Most of the franchises will enter the auction with significant money to spend in order to compile a fresh squad, but the likes of Punjab Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals will have a swollen purse.