De Kock makes a surprise return as BCCI prunes auction register to 350

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 auction will feature 350 players. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has arrived at this number after extensive consultations with the franchises. The auction will be held in Abu Dhabi on December 16.

A total of 1390 players registered for the Player Auction, out of which 350 players were shortlisted; 240 Indian and 110 are overseas recruits. The pool comprises 224 uncapped Indian players and 14 uncapped overseas players. The pruned final list includes 35 new names that were not part of the initial spreadsheet and one surprise entry among them is Quinton de Kock.

The South African wicketkeeper-batter had not figured in the original list, but his name was added later, evidently at the recommendation of a franchise. He is in the third lot that is for wicketkeeper/batters.

De Kock's (33) change of heart is not hard to understand. Having recently come out of international retirement, he smashed a century in the third and final ODI against India in Visakhapatnam the other day. His base price is INR 1 crore - a 50 percent drop from the previous mega auction, when he was picked up by the Knight Riders for the floor price of INR 2 crore.

After an underwhelming season with KKR, the franchise decided to release him.

Among other new players are a bunch of Sri Lankans - Traveen Mathew, Binura Fernando, Kusal Perera and Dunith Wellalage.

"The auction will feature 350 players and will commence at 1 pm UAE time (2.30 PM IST) on Tuesday, 16 December, at the Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi," the BCCI said in a mail to the franchises on Monday (December 8) night.

According to the BCCI, the player auction will commence with a full round of capped players in the order of specialism - batter (BA1), all-rounders (AL1), wicket keeper/batter (WK1), fast bowlers (FA1), and spin bowlers (SP1) followed by a full specialism round of uncapped players (UBA1, UAL1, UWK1, UFA1, USP1 followed by UBA2, UWK2 like that).

Cameron Green, expected to be in high demand, is in the first lot of batters (BA1). Others in that cluster are Devon Conway, Jake Fraser McGurk, Sarfaraz Khan, Prithvi Shaw and David Miller. Venkatesh Iyer is in the second lot belonging to AL1 (all-rounders).

Like in every auction, there will be an accelerated process and the BCCI plans to start it after Player No 70 in the register. "For your planning purposes, please note, subject to timings it is envisaged that the accelerated process will start after player No 70," the BCCI said in its mail. Wahidullah Zadran of Afghanistan is the 70th named in the document.

"The first accelerated will cover all the players from 71-350. Once these players have been presented, franchises will be requested to submit the names of the players (unpresented and unsold) from all those on the full list of 350 for further accelerated presentation," the BCCI said.

The 10 IPL franchises collectively have Rs 237.55 crore to transact at the auction, with Kolkata Knight Riders heading to Abu Dhabi with the maximum purse of Rs 64.30 crore. Chennai Super Kings are second on the rich list with a purse of Rs 43.40 crore available. There are 77 slots to be filled, including 31 overseas positions. The highest reserve price remains INR 2 crore, with 40 players choosing to enter the auction in this bracket but only two of them - Venkatesh Iyer and Ravi Bishnoi - are Indians.

The auction will begin at 2:30 PM IST (1 PM Local time) on December 16.

New inclusions:

Overseas players: Arab Gul (Afghanistan), Miles Hammond (England), Dan Lategan (England), Quinton de Kock (South Africa) Connor Eztherhuizen (South Africa), George Linde (South Africa), Bayanda Majola (South Africa), Traveen Mathew (Sri Lanka), Binura Fernando (Sri Lanka), Kusal Perera (Sri Lanka), Dunith Wellalage (Sri Lanka), Akeem Auguste (West Indies).

Indian players: Sadek Hussain, Vishnu Solanki, Sabir Khan, Brijesh Sharma, Kanishk Chouhan, Aaron George, Jikku Bright, Srihari Nair, Madhav Bajaj, Shreevathsa Acharya, Yashraj Punja, Sahil Parakh, Roshan Waghsare, Yash Dicholkar, Ayaz Khan, Dhurmil Matkar, Naman Pushpak, Parikshit Valsangkar, Purav Agarwal, Rishabh Chouhan, Sagar Solanki, Izaz Sawariya and Aman Shekawat.