Root, Gayle, Stokes among star attractions in IPL auction

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) England's Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan and West Indian power-hitter Chris Gayle are among the 1,122 players, who have registered for the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction set to be held on January 27 and 28 in Bengaluru, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced on Saturday.

A total of 26 players from England, 58 from Australia, 30 from New Zealand and 57 from South Africa have registered for the auction, taking the overseas players to 282.

Afghanistan too will see 13 players in the list while there are 39 from Sri Lanka and an equal number from the West Indies.

Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have 8 and 7 players hoping to go under the hammer.

Mitchell Starc, who ended his association with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ahead of the last IPL, too has entered the auction that also includes Chris Lynn, Pat Cummins, Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite, Evin Lewis and Jason Holder.

Hashim Amla, Kagiso Rabada, Faf du Plessis and Morne Morkel are the few South Africans who are also part of the list.

The in-form Glenn Maxwell and Shane Watson, who was mulling calling time on his IPL career last year, too have entered the race with Mitchell Johnson, who has retired from international cricket but continues to play in the Big Bash League.

Lasith Malinga, whose form has taken a considerable dip in the last year or so, too will be part of the auction apart from his Sri Lanka mates Angelo Mathews and Niroshan Dickwella.

Kane Williamson, Colin Munro and Tom Latham from New Zealand will add their charm to the league.

Among the Indians, a fierce bidding war is expected to break out when Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, off-spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav and openers Lokesh Rahul and Murali Vijay go under the hammer.

The full list has already been sent out to the eight franchises.

There are a total of 281 capped players, 838 uncapped players, which also includes 778 Indian players, apart from three players from Associate nations.