Former India batter Virender Sehwag has picked five Indian players, who he says will be the most sought after ones in the IPL 2022 mega auction, scheduled for February 12 and 13.
Sehwag said the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, and most importantly Ishan Kishan could be among the most expensive players in the mega auction and many franchises will line up to acquire their services.
Posting a video on Instagram, Sehwag said, "I have also made some points for the IPL auction, which I thought to share with you. I have selected 5 such Indian players who will be the most important during the auction, and can probably get the most expensive tags.
"There is Shikhar Dhawan at number 1, then Shardul Thakur, and Shreyas Iyer. It is followed by Yuzvendra Chahal at number 4 and then Ishan Kishan at number 5. I think these are the 5 Indian players who will highlight the auction."
Apart from the most expensive Indian players, a veteran of 104 Tests has also named the foreign players who can be in the highest demand during the auction.
"I think David Warner, Trent Boult, Jason Holder, Mitchell Marsh and Pat Cummins are the players who can be in highest demand. According to me, these are the 5 players, all franchises would love to get them," he said.
The former explosive batter has suggested the captain's names to the franchises, saying Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, R Ashwin, or Dinesh Karthik are the Indian players who can become the captains in different franchises. However, he said that David Warner, Jason Holder, Pat Cummins, Faf du Plessis and Aaron Finch will also be in the fray for captaincy roles in the teams.
On February 12 and 13, the 10 franchises will fight among themselves to fill the remaining slots. Each team can have a maximum number of 25 players and at least 18 in their squad. Amongst 590 players (370 Indian, 220 Overseas), who have registered for the auction, 228 are capped players, 355 are uncapped and seven belong to Associate Nations.
The highest reserve price is Rs 2 crore and as many as 48 players have chosen to place themselves in this bracket. There are 20 players on the auction list with a reserve price of Rs 1.5 crore while 34 players are on the list of cricketers with a reserve price of Rs one crore.