The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) auction is set to take place on December 19 at the Coca Cola Arena in Dubai. The event is set to commence at 1 PM IST. 24 hours before the mini-auction, one of the broadcasters of the aucton, Jio Cinema, conducted a mock auction with certain experts and former cricketers taking up their favourite teams and bidding on behalf of them.
Mitchell Starc has become the most expensive player in the mock auction with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) getting hold of him for a massive price of INR 18.5 crore. For the unversed, Starc has been listed in the fast bowlers set in the auction which is the fourth set of the day. Next in line is Gerald Coetzee who went to Gujarat Titans for INR 18 crore while Australia's World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins was snapped up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 17.5 crore.
Shardul Thakur is the most expensive Indian cricketer so far with Punjab Kings splurging 14 crore on him while the likes of Harry Brook and Wanindu Hasaranga went to the Titans and Chennai Super Kings for INR 9.5 and 8.5 crore respectively. The mock auction is just conducted to create a scenario of the main auction and the numbers in this event do not make any impact on the event proper that is set to take place on Tuesday.
Most expensive players in IPL mock auction 2024
| Player | Team | Sold Price |
| Mitchell Starc | RCB | 18.5 crore |
| Gerald Coetzee | GT | 18 crore |
| Pat Cummins | SRH | 17.5 crore |
| Shardul Thakur | PBKS | 14 crore |
| Harry Brook | GT | 9.5 crore |
333 players set to go under the hammer in IPL auction 2024
Meanwhile, as many as 333 players have been shortlisted to fill a maximum of 77 slots across 10 teams at the IPL auction. A total of 214 Indian and 119 overseas players will be in the auction and only a handful of them will get picked at the event. All eyes are on big names like Mitchell Starc, World Cup hero Travis Head, New Zealand's prodigy Rachin Ravindra among others. Every year auction throws up crazy numbers with Punjab Kings breaking the bank for Sam Curran who was snapped up for INR 18.5 crore. It will be interesting to see if any player goes past him this time around.
