England's Joe Root to debut in IPL 2018

Registration of players for VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) closed on Friday, January 12, 2018, and over 1000 players registered themselves.

The auction is scheduled to take place on Jan 27-28, in Bengaluru.

"The list that has been sent out to the eight IPL franchises has 281 capped players, 838 uncapped players, including 778 Indians and three players from the associate nations," as per a BCCI media release.

A fierce bidding war is expected to break out when Indian stars Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, off-spinners R. Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav and openers KL Rahul and M. Vijay will go under the hammer.

The franchises will leave no stone unturned when Chris Gayle, Ben Stokes, Chris Lynn, Eoin Morgan and pacers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins come up for VIVO IPL Player Auction 2018.

England’s Test captain Joe Root has also thrown his hat into the ring and will be the new entrant to the world’s most popular T20 league.

Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite, Evin Lewis and Jason Holder will add the Caribbean flavour to the league.

Lasith Malinga will lead Sri Lanka’s entourage that includes Angelo Mathews, the exciting Niroshan Dickwella and Thisara Perera.

Showing his full range of strokes will be Glenn Maxwell, all-rounder Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson, who bowled Mumbai Indians for their third title last season with his final over heroics.

Hashim Amla, who hit two centuries for Kings XI Punjab in the 10th season will be hoping for a high bid with compatriots Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada.

Kane Williamson, Colin Munro and Tom Latham from New Zealand will add their charm to the league.

India captain Virat Kohli will pick up the IPL's largest-ever salary -- $2.7 million -- in this year's tournament after his team Royal Challengers Bangalore retained the star player.

The country-wise breakdown of 282 overseas players:

Country                               No. of players registered

Afghanistan                               13

Australia                                    58

Bangladesh                                 8

England                                     26

Ireland                                         2

New Zealand                             30

Scotland                                      1

South Africa                               57

Sri Lanka                                   39

The USA                                      2

West Indies                                39

Zimbabwe                                    7