Five Afghan players are vying for a place in the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League. A total of 351 players will go under the hammer in the auction to be held on February 20. A shortlist was formed from the 799 players who had registered for the auction.

The list includes 122 international players in total, including six players from associate nations.
Afghanistan players Asghar Stanikzai, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad, Rashid Khan and Dawlat Zadran have made the cut.

The five players were part of the outfit that played the World Twenty20 in India last year. The team had an impressive showing with a win over eventual champions West Indies in the Group stage. They had also stretched Sri Lanka and England close.

Keeper-batsman Shahzad had smashed 222 runs in the seven matches he played in the qualifying and group stages of the tournament, while skipper Stanikzai scored 141.

The auction will also see UAE’s Chirag Suri in the fray, taking the total tally of players from associate nations to six.

This is the final year of the IPL before the teams overhaul their squads for the 2018 season. With only a year left, the franchises could adopt a conservative approach compared to previous auctions.

England Twenty20 stars Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan and Chris Woakes have been listed with a base price of Rs 2 crore, the highest for the auction. Australia’s Mitchell Johnson and Pat Cummins, along with Angelo Mathews of Sri Lanka, are the others in the top base-price bracket.

India’s Ishant Sharma is also listed for the highest base-price bracket. Pawan Negi, who was bought for Rs. 8.5 crore ahead of the last edition by Delhi Daredevils, has a base price of Rs 30 lakhs.