Australians top overseas list as 1,214 players register for ITL 2022 player auction; Chris Gayle, Ben Stokes among key absentees

Amidst all the excitement revolving around the 15th edition of the Indian T20 League, a total of 1,214 players have registered for the upcoming mega auction. These 1214 players consist of 896 Indian players and 318 overseas players.

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The players list incorporates 270 capped, 903 uncapped and 41 Associate players. Among them, 59 Australian players registered for this edition's auction, which is the most from a foreign country. The second being South Africa, with 48 players from the rainbow nation putting forth their names.

West Indies (41), Sri Lanka (36), England (30), New Zealand (29) and Afghanistan (20) are some of the other countries from where numerous players have registered for the mega auction. Players from relatively smaller countries have registered their names as well.

Nepal (15), USA (14), Namibia (5) and Oman (3) are some countries from where players have registered for the auction. According to the media advisory of the Indian T20 league, the player registrations closed on January 20. It stated that there would be 217 players taken in the auction if every franchise were to have a maximum of 25 players in their squad. Meanwhile, much to the disappointment of fans, several key players including the likes of Chris Gayle, Ben Stokes, Mitchell Starc won't be part of the auction.

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"if every franchise were to have the maximum of 25 players in their squad, 217 players will be taken in the auction (of which up to 70 may be overseas players)," said the media advisory. As of now, a total of 33 players have been picked ahead of the mega auction.

Ahead of the auction, the eight existing teams retained a total of 27 players, while the two new franchises, i.e. Ahmedabad and Lucknow, picked three players from the draft.