IPL 2026: Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ben Sears, Ethan Bosch among late additions to auction list

Mumbai, Dec 15 (IANS) Bengal opening batter Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has been on the verge of international debut on a couple of occasions, along with New Zealand pacer Ben Sears and South Africa's Ethan Bosch, are among the late additions made to the auction list for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 on Monday night. 

Easwaran, who was part of the Indian squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the 2024-25 season, was included in the list of 19 players that were added to the list. Ethan, brother of South African all-rounder Corbin Bosch, has played one ODI for South Africa, while Ben Sears has appeared for the Black Caps in one Test and four ODIs so far.

The list also includes Virandeep Singh of Malaysia and Chris Green of Australia, besides Kyle Verreyanne of South Africa and Blessing Muzarabani of Zimbabwe, another international player, who will be part of the auction, which will be held in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

It also has some uncapped players, mostly from India, including Kerala wicketkeeper-batter K.L. Shrijith. The addition of these 19 names takes the total players in the auction pool to 369.

The spotlight will be on the likes of Cameron Green, Liam Livingstone, and Ravi Bishnoi as ten franchises gear up for the IPL 2026 auction, set to take place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. It will mark the third straight time of an IPL auction happening outside India after Dubai (2024) and Jeddah (2025).

All ten teams are expected to loosen their purse strings in pursuit of marquee talent and have a squad that can win the IPL 2026 trophy. A total of 77 slots are available, including 31 for overseas players. Three-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have the most vacancies with 13, followed by 2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) with ten.

From a longlist of 1,355 players, 359 have been shortlisted – 244 Indian and 115 overseas. Forty players have entered at the maximum base price of Rs 2 crore, with Bishnoi and Venkatesh Iyer the only Indians in that group.

Green, Australia’s seam-bowling all-rounder, is expected to be the biggest draw, thanks to the skewed demand-supply ratio in a mini IPL auction, with bids for him projected to cross Rs 25 crore.

Apart from Bishnoi and Green, the England duo of Liam Livingstone and Jamie Smith, along with NZ pacer Matt Henry, keeper-batter Tim Seifert, and South Africa batter David Miller, are also likely to attract strong interest from all ten teams, as is Sri Lanka pacer Matheesha Pathirana, who was let go of by Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

--IANS

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