IPL auction: In-form New Zealand players expect huge monetary deals from franchises

Wellington: Their excellent performance against a much higher-ranked India in the ongoing series has made New Zealand's cricketers hopeful of fetching lucrative IPL contracts and there is an air of anticipation in the Kiwi camp ahead of the players' auction in far away Bangalore tomorrow.

India are yet to win a game on this tour of New Zealand, after losing the five-match ODI series 4-0 and now trailing 1-0 in the two-Test series as well.

The limited-overs' players from the visitors' original squad have already returned home, and among those present here as part of the Test squad, not many big names are up for grabs.

Among the batsmen, only Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay and Wriddhiman Saha are up for auction. Barring R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, all the bowlers -- Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami and Ishwar Pandey will be in the auction pool.

There is more buzz around the hosts though, with Corey Anderson leading the way, despite senior pros Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor (Rs. 2 crore base price each) also going under the hammer.

The all-rounder, who smashed the quickest ODI century against the West Indies in the preceding series, has set Rs one crore as his base-price.

"I have tried not thinking about it too much, ever since the Indian tour started. But it is something that will definitely get to you at some stage," said Anderson, about the prospective auction.

"I am excited about it now. I have no idea what it is going to be like. Yet I can sense that this is a bit of circus as well as the cricket bit. And I am glad to be part of this circus," he added.