The player auction for the third season of the Kerala Cricket League (KCL) is expected to spring a few surprises, with some of the biggest names in Kerala cricket going under the hammer on Saturday.  

Explosive batter and IPL star Vishnu Vinod, former Kerala captain Sachin Baby, Vignesh Puthur, under-19 internationals Manav Krishna and Mohammed Ennan, and veteran all-rounder Vinoop Manoharan are among the 139 players up for grabs

However, it is unlikely that any of these players will break Sanju Samson’s record-breaking price of ₹26.80 lakh, which Kochi Blue Tigers paid last season. 

While the six franchises have retained a total of 17 players, they are expected to spend the remaining purse wisely to build their squads. Each franchisee must buy at least four players from Pool A category. 

The total team budget and salary cap of players across all categories remained unchanged from last season.

The 32 players enlisted in Pool A command a base price of ₹3 lakh. Pool B features 37 players with a base price of ₹1.5 lakh. Pool C, which comprises under-19 and club-level cricketers, has the highest representation, with 87 players all carrying a base price of ₹75,000. 

Having retained only Mohammed Azharuddeen, Alleppey Ripples enters the auction with the maximum available budget of ₹42.5 lakh. 

The available purse with the other franchises is as follows: Kochi Blue Tigers (₹41 lakh); Trivandrum Royals (₹39.5 lakh); Aries Kollam Sailors (₹34.5 lakh); Thrissur Titans (₹34.5 lakh); Calicut Globstars (₹33.75 lakh).

Charu Sharma will return as the auctioneer for the third successive season. 

Kerala batter Mohammed Azharuddeen on Sunday replaced Tilak Varma as the South Zone captain for the Duleep Trophy semifinal against North Zone, starting at the BCCI Centre of Excellence on September 4.

Tilak Varma, who was originally named the South skipper, will not be playing the Duleep Trophy after he was named in the India squad for the upcoming Asia Cup.

Azharuddeen was the vice-captain of the side, and now that role has been handed to Tamil Nadu’s N Jagadeesan. Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore too will not be playing in the semifinal for South Zone as he is still recuperating from a hand injury that forced him to skip the recent Buchi Babu Trophy.

Ankit Sharma of Puducherry and Shaikh Rasheed of Andhra have been added to the South squad for the Duleep Trophy last four match. Both the players were already named in the standbys. Ankit is a left-arm spinner who has taken 168 wickets from 68 First-Class matches, while Rasheed is a 20-year-old top-order batter who has made 1204 runs from 19 Ranji Trophy games. He was drafted in by Chennai Super Kings during IPL 2025.

Revised South Zone squad: Mohammed Azharuddeen (Captain), Tanmay Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, Narayan Jagadeesan, Tripurana Vijay, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Nidheesh MD, Ricky Bhui, Basil NP, Gurjapneet Singh, Snehal Kauthankar, Ankit Sharma, Shaikh Rasheed. Standbys: Mohit Redkar, R Smaran, Edhen Apple Tom, Andre Siddarth.