Will Ashwin be the most expensive buy at inaugural ILT20 auction?

There have been capped Indian cricketers at the UAE's ILT20 league in the past - like Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu and Yusuf Pathan - but not many and not any as high-profile or as recently retired as R Ashwin. On Wednesday, Ashwin will be in the fray at the ILT20's inaugural player auction where he has listed the maximum base price of US$120,000. Ashwin, though, isn't the only talking point ahead of the auction.

He retired from international cricket during the 2024-25 tour of Australia, and then from the IPL in August this year. At the time, he said, "My time as an explorer of the game around various leagues begins today". He has been doing some of that, and last week became the first capped India cricketer to earn a BBL deal, with Sydney Thunder.

Now, Ashwin is in the ILT20 auction, and he has entered it with the highest base price - the only player at the auction with a base price in six figures. At a tournament where teams have names like (Dubai) Capitals, (Abu Dhabi) Knight Riders and MI (Emirates), he should be in demand. Especially because he has committed to the entire ILT20, and will go to the BBL only after it's over.

No. There were 24 Indians in the longlist, and in the shortlist, there are five.

Apart from Ashwin, another prominent capped player who has officially retired quite recently, though he had been out of the frame for a while, is Piyush Chawla. Chawla, with 192 wickets, is still the fourth-highest wicket-taker in IPL history. Ashwin is actually fifth on that list, with 187. And like Ashwin, Chawla should find a team too, especially at a base price of US$40,000.

The others are Priyank Panchal, Ankit Rajpoot and Siddarth Kaul, all at a base price of US$10,000.

Oh, there hasn't been one in the past. Only drafts in the first three seasons. This time, there will be an IPL-like auction. Therefore, this. What's also new is that the ILT20 in 2025-26 will happen in the December-January window, unlike the usual January-February window to avoid the crammed period at the start of the year. In fact, in 2026, the men's T20 World Cup is also expected to start in early February, so it's more cluttered than usual.

The franchises had announced their retentions and direct signings in July. Each team could spend up to US$1.2 million on those, with the balance amount to be added to the auction purse of US$800,000. While a franchise can exhaust its entire US$2 million purse, it will need to spend a minimum of US$1.5 million. The ILT20 rules also permit franchises to spend an additional US$250,000 to buy up to two wildcard players outside the auction.

Here's how much each franchise has left:

Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: US$825,000
Desert Vipers: US$802,500
Dubai Capitals: US$10,35,000
Gulf Giants: US$10,35,000
MI Emirates: US$800,000
Sharjah Warriorz: US$800,000

After Ashwin's base price, the highest slab is US$80,000, and there are 20 players at that price: Evin Lewis, Tymal Mills, Jason Roy, Karim Janat, Naveen-ul-Haq, Obed McCoy, Taskin Ahmed, Andre Fletcher, Liam Dawson, Mohammad Nabi, Jayden Seales, Shamar Joseph, Craig Overton, and seven Pakistan players - Fakhar, Saim Ayub, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Abdul Samad and Faheem Ashraf.

The lower slabs are of US$40,000 and US$10,000, which is the lowest base price.

Of course. And pre-auction signings. Here's the full list:

Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: Alishan Sharafu, Andre Russell, Charith Asalanka, Phil Salt and Sunil Narine
Desert Vipers: Dan Lawrence, David Payne, Khuzaima Bin Tanveer, Lockie Ferguson, Max Holden, Sam Curran and Wanindu Hasaranga
Dubai Capitals: Dasun Shanaka, Dushmantha Chameera, Gulbadin Naib, Rovman Powell and Shai Hope
Gulf Giants: Aayan Afzal Khan, Blessing Muzarabani, Gerhard Erasmus, James Vince and Mark Adair
MI Emirates: AM Ghazanfar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kusal Perera, Romario Shepherd, Tom Banton and Muhammad Waseem
Sharjah Warriorz: Johnson Charles, Tim Southee and Tom Kohler-Cadmore

Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: Alex Hales, Liam Livingstone, Sherfane Rutherford
Desert Vipers: Andries Gous
Dubai Capitals: Luke Wood, Waqar Salamkheil and Muhammad Jawadullah
Gulf Giants: Azmatullah Omarzai, Moeen Ali, Rahmanullah Gurbaz
MI Emirates: Chris Woakes, Kamindu Mendis
Sharjah Warriorz: Maheesh Theekshana, Sikandar Raza, Saurabh Netravalkar, Tim David

* On Tuesday, the day before the auction, Dinesh Karthik was picked as Kusal Mendis' replacement at Sharjah Warriorz.

Remember, each franchise needs a minimum of 19 players and a maximum of 21, excluding the two wildcards they are allowed to buy outside the auction. The franchises will also have one right-to-match card but they can use it only to buy back a UAE player. That player must have been part of the franchise's development squad or the 2025 squad.

All that being said, the line-ups as they are could go through some tweaks, because despite the change in the playing dates, there will be a clash with the Lanka Premier League and the Bangladesh Premier League.

Yeah, all teams are allowed two wildcards. And all teams bar MI Emirates have signed their wildcards. By the way, a franchise can sign a player as wildcard anytime. Following is the list of players who've already been picked as wildcards:

Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: Jason Holder and Usman Tariq
Desert Vipers: Shimron Hetmyer
Dubai Capitals: David Willey and Leus de Plooy
Gulf Giants: Kyle Mayers and Matthew Forde
Sharjah Warriorz: Tom Abell and Adil Rashid

So Vipers can get one more if they want, and MI Emirates can get their two at a later stage.

Well, the first thing you need to do is read this by Osman Samiuddin. And no, there is no official ban on them, in case you were wondering.

Also, there are 16 players from Pakistan, including many from the squad at the Asia Cup recently, who are in the auction shortlist: apart from Fakhar, Ayub, Mohammad Haris, Imad, Naseem, Samad and Faheem mentioned above, there are Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Wasim, Mohammad Hasnain, Salman Irshad, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usama Mir and Zaman Khan. You'd expect many of them to be in demand, unless there are non-cricketing factors at play.

The shortlist has 196 players who will fill the remaining slots. A minimum of 11 players will have to be bought by each team, so that's at least 66 players who will find new teams on Wednesday. It will start with the players in Set 1, 2 and 3, who are all local UAE players, including familiar names like Rohan Mustafa, Ethan D'Souza, Vriitya Aravind and Junaid Siddique, among others.

This will be followed by nine sets of players from Full-Member countries, and this includes the big stars: Ashwin, of course, as well as all the players in the US$80,000 base price category, and some even in the US$40,000 and US$10,000 slabs.

Next come three sets of players from the Associate countries, numbering 23. Some familiar names are there too, like Namibia's David Wiese, Netherlands' Roelof van der Merwe, USA's Aaron Jones and Unmukt Chand, and Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee.

After that are the uncapped players from UAE, and players from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and finally the accelerated round, which is by no means a selection of unfamiliar names. You will find the likes of Ravi Bopara, Lorcan Tucker, Benny Howell, Curtis Campher, Blair Tickner, Gudakesh Motie, Keacy Carty, Bas de Leede and many others there.

The tournament starts on December 2 this year, and runs till January 4, 2026. So far, it has been an all-teams-play-each-other-twice in the first round, followed by four playoffs, totalling 34 games, and there's no indication that will change.