Several Under-19 players to miss this season’s IPL

8 of the 15-member India U-19 WC squad are set to miss the bus for the seventh edition of the IPL after the governing council (GC) decided to exclude players without first-class or List A experience from the ‘uncapped players’ auction list.  The ruling will mean that Mumbai’s highly-touted young batsman Sarfaraz Khan and fellow right-hander Shreyas Iyer may be out of IPL-reckoning.

“The Indian under-19 players in the junior World Cup and haven’t played first-class or List A cricket will not feature in the auction. They need to have played at least one of the two formats,” IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal said.

The ‘long-list’ totaling 651 uncapped players that was presented to the eight franchises on Thursday, however, contained U-19 skipper Vijay Zol, Ricky Bhui, Akhil Herwadkar, Ankush Bains, Kuldeep Yadav and Chama Milind on the basis of these six having represented their respective states at domestic level.  Sanju Samson has already been retained by  Royals.

This will be the first year where even uncapped players will be part of the IPL VII Auction scheduled for February 12 and 13. For now, 51 more uncapped players are expected to be added to the list that was drawn up based on the nominations received from the various state associations and eight other countries.  Those will not include Sarfaraz and Iyer and their junior teammates, Amir Gani, Avesh Khan, Deepak Hooda, Karan Kaila, Monu Kumar and Atit Sheth.