Also in contention will be Bangladesh’s best batsman Mohammad Ashraful and all-rounder Mashrafe Mortaza.

Most agree that Misbah-ul Haq will be in high demand. Only those teams with enough money left will get to have Misbah. He could — going by first round figures — could easily fetch more than $300,000.

“We have a bit of money left to spend and we’ll try and use it wisely,” says Team Bangalore CEO Charu Sharma. The Bangalore team, which has the likes of Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Shivnarine Chanderpaul as leading batsmen may gun for Misbah simply for the aggressive strike rate. Jaipur team CEO Fraser Castellino is also keeping his fingers crossed.

Players like Mohammad Yousuf and Ashwell Prince, who remained unsold earlier, will be up for bids once again. However, with the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) in no mood to relent in Yousuf’s case and with the legal hassles currently still on, there are chances that the Pak middle-order batsman may have no takers yet again.