IPL 2022 Auction: Five Overseas Bowlers To Watch Out For In The Mega Auction

The IPL 2022 mega auction will be held in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13. The overseas bowlers will be high in demand in the upcoming mega auction, given that all the teams looking to rebuild. Given that this might be the last mega auction ever reportedly, the onus will be that much higher to get the best bowlers.

The BCCI finalised a list of 590 cricketers among which 370 are Indian and 270 overseas players. The overseas players are from different countries like Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka among others. So far, the 10 franchises have picked a total of 33 players in their squads. The rest of the players will be picked from this list during IPL 2022 auction.

A total of 48 players are part of the Rs. 2 crore base price. 20 players have identified themselves in Rs. 1.5 crore base price while 34 players are part of Rs. 1 crore bracket. Meanwhile, in this article, we take a look at five overseas bowlers to watch out for in the IPL 2022 mega auction.

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IPL 2022 Auction: Five Overseas Bowlers To Watch Out For In The Mega Auction

Trent Boult

Boult was one of the key members when Mumbai Indians won their fifth IPL title in. However, he was released ahead of the mega auctions due to the strict auction rules. Mumbai would look to buy back the southpaw in the upcoming auctions. He picked up 13 wickets for Mumbai in 2021.

Making his debut in the IPL in 2015, Boult has played for a number of franchises including SRH (2015, 2016), KKR (2017), Delhi Capitals (2018-19) and Mumbai. It will be interesting to see if Boult manages to go back to any of these three sides in the upcoming auction.

Pat Cummins

The Australian Test skipper has not had an impactful season in the IPL so far. He joined KKR in IPL 2020 and across two seasons picked up just 21 wickets. Having said that, Cummins is a proven matchwinner in international cricket and now that he is Australia’s Test captain, he might be seen as a potential captaincy candidate in the IPL as well.

Kagiso Rabada

The South African paver has been the most consistent overseas pacer in the IPL. He won the Purple cap in IPL 2020 taking 30 wickets. He has taken over 45 wickets in the last two seasons in the IPL. However, Delhi Capitals did not retain him in the retention window. In his place, they retained his Protean pacer partner Anrich Nortje.

For franchises, who are looking to add some serious pace into their bowling group, this is their big chance to rope him in. It’s very expected that teams will need to go all out to rope in the Protean speedster given his reputation in the IPL. Overall in 50 games in the IPL so far, KG Rabada has picked 76 wickets averaging 20.53 and striking at 15.00.

Josh Hazlewood

The Australian speedster was with the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2020 and 2021. However, due to a lack of games and game time with the franchise, he was released ahead of the IPL 2020 mega auction. He bowls a disciplined line and length and can bowl at a good pace as well.

He picked 11 wickets in nine games last season for CSK. He was successful in the T20 World Cup as well picking 11 wickets. Various franchises will keep an eye on the Aussie pacer given his good form in recent international cricket.

Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Franchises in recent times have paid a lot of attention in bidding for mystery spinners. Rashid Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Sunil Narine and lately Varun Chakravarthy has fallen into that category. Mujeeb Ur Rahman is another spinner with similar traits.

He will surely make franchises want him in their teams in the upcoming IPL 2022 auction. He has picked up 19 wickets in 19 games so far but promises much more in the future if he is given games consistently. He picked up seven wickets in three games in the T20 World Cup in UAE last year.

Also Read: IPL 2022: Aakash Chopra Predicts The Most Expensive Indian Bowler In IPL Auction