The two new franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) have been asked to submit their pre-auction signings by Jan. 22.
A day after the IPL Governing Council formally approved Lucknow and Ahmedabad as the ninth and the tenth IPL franchises, the IPL executives on Wednesday communicated the deadline to the promoters of both the franchises.
As a result, each franchise will have to submit names of a maximum of three players by 5 p.m. on Jan. 22. The Lucknow promoters are understood to have offered K.L. Rahul the captaincy, Hardik Pandya is the front-runner to lead the Ahmedabad franchise. The biggest tussle, however, is over Rashid Khan, who is being chased by both the teams.
Venues for WI series
Meanwhile, Ahmedabad and Lucknow have been shortlisted as the possible hubs for India’s limited-overs series against the West Indies, scheduled from Feb. 6 to 20.
According to the initial itinerary, Ahmedabad (Feb. 6), Jaipur (Feb. 9) and Kolkata (Feb. 12) were scheduled to host the ODIs, while Cuttack (Feb. 15), Visakhapatnam (Feb. 18) and Thiruvananthapuram (Feb. 20) were to stage the T20Is.
However, the COVID-19 surge has resulted in the BCCI deciding to prune the venues. At the moment, Lucknow has been shortlisted to stage the ODIs, while Ahmedabad will host T20Is. In case the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh result in logistic challenge, all the games will be played in Ahmedabad.