Last update:06 November 2024, 08:30 IST

The 24-year-old right-arm medium pacer Draca has registered for the IPL 2025 mega auction scheduled to take place in Jeddah on November 24-25.

Italian player Thomas Draca has registered for the IPL 2025 mega auction. (Instagram/@bramptonwolvesgt20)

As many as 1,574 players from 17 countries have registered for the IPL 2025 mega auction scheduled to take place on November 24-25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Of these 1,574 players, 409 are foreigners and 48 are selected Indian cricketers. As Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul are set to spark a massive bidding war in the mega auction, an Italian player has also registered his name for the players’ auction.

Thomas Jack Draca is a 24-year-old Italian cricketer who has registered for the IPL 2025 mega auction. Draca has played four T20Is for Italy so far and has eight wickets to his name. He is the first player from his country to register for the player auction of the world’s richest franchise cricket league.

Draca is a right-arm medium pacer, and he made his T20I debut for Italy on 29 June 2024, against Luxembourg in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup European Sub-Regional Qualification Group A match played in Spinaceto.

Draca, who played for Brampton Wolves in the Global T20 Canada 2024 in July-August and took 11 wickets in six matches, was signed by Mumbai Indians’ sister franchise MI Emirates for the 2025 ILT20 season in September, and if he is shortlisted for the auction, he could attract interest from the Mumbai-based franchise.

Among the foreign players registered for the IPL 2025 mega auction, 91 are from South Africa and 76 from Australia. Mitchell Starc, who was signed for Rs 24.75 crore by KKR in the IPL 2024 auction, has set a base price of Rs 2 crore. He is expected to go under the hammer alongside Steve Smith, Australian T20I captain Mitchell Marsh and former opener David Warner.

52 England players also registered for the auction, but Test captain Ben Stokes opted to stay out of the cash-rich league. It was reported that Stokes wanted to prioritize Test cricket for England and use this period (mid-March to end-May) to prepare well for the five-match Test series against India and the Ashes.

However, former England pacer James Anderson, who last played a T20 match in 2014, entered the auction at a base price of Rs 1.25 crore.