IPL 2023 Auction Action: Dominance of Jammu & Kashmir - 21 Players Set to Spark Intense Bidding War in Kochi

30 November 2021, was a red letter day for Jammu & Kashmir as Sunrisers Hyderabad decided to retain Abdul Samad and Umran Malik ahead of the 2022 IPL mega auction. If Samad caught everyone’s attention with his big hits in the edition preceding the auction, it was Umran’s pace that set the stage on fire.

2022 turned out to be a dream year for speedster Umran as he went on to make his debut for India in white-ball formats. For Samad, however, it wasn’t an ideal stint in the IPL but he managed to keep the faith of the SRH management and was retained ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auctions.

IPL 2023 Auction: Complete list of players set to go under the hammer in Kochi

A few other cricketers from the valley, like Rasikh Islam and Parvez Rasool, also had stints in the IPL but it was Samad’s outing with SRH and then Umran’s exploits with the ball which put their talent on notice. In no time, the IPL scouts started digging deep to unearth raw talent from Jammu & Kashmir and more and more names started appearing in the auction pool.

From 10 names in the 2022 auction list, it has swelled to a healthy 21 for this year’s mini-auction. It is the biggest number and Karnataka, UP, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi are a distant second with 16 names each in the shortlist of 405.

The journey that we’re so proud of!