IPL Auction 2022: Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Rahul Chahar, Ishan Kishan set to hit pay dirt like never before

Shreyas Iyer and the multi-skilled Shardul Thakur are expected to laugh their way to the bank as two of the costliest buys in the history of Indian Premier League when the last mega-auction commences here on Saturday. The 10 teams in the league, following the addition of Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Supergiants, will be bidding heavily for the Indian players in a list of 590 cricketers, including 227 overseas candidates up for grabs during the two-day event. This year's auction might witness the maximum number of Indian million dollar buys (Rs 7.5 crore and above) with more than 10 cricketers set to cross Rs 10 crore bid range and some expected to hit close to Rs 20 crore.

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From a total auction purse of Rs 900 cr, of which Rs 384.5 cr has been spent by franchises already in retaining cricketers or drafting them in, a balance of Rs 515.5 cr is waiting to be used this weekend. In the fray are 590 cricketers who make for a pruned list from a total of 1,214 who had

While Iyer could be the highest ever auction buy (in the 20 crore range), the likes of Shardul and Kishan (keeper-batter), with their bouquet of skills, can also fetch anything in the range of Rs 12-15 crore or even upwards if some franchises get into intense bidding wars. Then there are Deepak Chahar and Yuzvendra Chahal, who can also get anything in the range of USD 2 million (Rs 15 crore) as both of them are proven international performers. With megastars like Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) and Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians) retained by their respective franchises, teams would look from flamboyant middle-order batters