ILT20 Auction: Babar Azam, Phil Salt, Wanindu Hasaranga among T20 stars set for Season 5 auction

Babar Azam, Phil Salt, Wanindu Hasaranga, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Liam Livingstone, Faf du Plessis and Alzarri Joseph are among the leading names in the player pool for the DP World ILT20 Season 5 auction, which will be held in Dubai on October 1.

More than 200 players from 23 countries have been shortlisted for the auction, which will take place at the ICC Academy Indoors from 1pm GST (2:30pm IST). The six franchises will use the auction to complete their squads ahead of the 34-match season, which runs from November 21 to December 20.

The player pool includes representatives from 11 ICC Full Member nations, along with cricketers from ILT20 partners Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and 10 other Associate Member nations.

Players have been divided into three base-price categories of $80,000, $40,000 and $10,000.

The highest bracket features several established T20 names, including Babar, Salt, Banton, Gurbaz, Hasaranga, Livingstone, du Plessis, Joseph, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Alex Hales, Naseem Shah, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Chris Woakes.

Several players in the top bracket featured in Season 4, with Salt having represented Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, Banton turning out for MI Emirates and Gurbaz playing for Gulf Giants. Bairstow, Moeen and Hales were also part of the previous season.

The $40,000 bracket includes Shadab Khan, Ibrahim Zadran, Jayden Seales, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kusal Perera, Gulbadin Naib and Andre Fletcher, while the $10,000 pool features players such as Will Smeed, Reeza Hendricks, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ish Sodhi, George Munsey and Matt Potts.

UAE players could attract strong interest

The auction will also be significant for UAE cricket, with all UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia players entering at a base price of $10,000.

Under the Season 5 recruitment rules, none of the players from those three countries could be retained by their previous franchises. That leaves several established UAE internationals, including Muhammad Waseem, Junaid Siddique, Haider Ali, Ayan Afzal Khan, Alishan Sharafu and Khuzaima Tanveer, available for selection.

Each franchise will also have one Right to Match option, which can be used on a UAE player who represented the team in Season 4 or featured for the franchise in the recently concluded ILT20 Development Tournament.

The playing XI regulations will further increase the importance of the local player pool. Every team must field at least two UAE players, two Afghanistan players and one additional Associate Member player in every match.

MI Emirates have biggest purse

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