England Veteran James Anderson Features in IPL 2025 Auction Players List, But Test Captain Ben Stokes Opts Out

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England veteran pacer James Anderson has entered the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction for the first time, but the current Test skipper Ben Stokes has opted to skip the IPL 2025 Mega Auction.

Anderson, who retired from international cricket earlier this year, has in fact never participated in a global T20 franchise league. The legendary pacer has reportedly registered himself for the IPL big auction scheduled to be held later this month.

As per BCCI's official announcement, a total of 1574 players have registered their names for the two-day auction set to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on November 24 and 25. Among the 1574 players, 1165 are Indians and 407 are overseas, including 30 from Associate Nations.

The 409 overseas players, include 52 from England with some of the big name T20 stars like Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Will Jacks, Harry Brook and Moeen Ali among others have put their names for the auction.

According to reports, the veteran Anderson, who is currently working as England's bowling coach, has registered himself at a base price of Rs 1.25 Crore. The 42-year-old last played a T20I in 2009, and also played his last white ball international game in 2015.

Meanwhile, Anderson's former teammate and England's Test captain Stokes is not among the list of players who have registered for the auction. Stokes, who was bought by CSK ahead of IPL 2023 for Rs 16.25 Crore, did not feature last season due to injury.

Stokes' withdrawal from the upcoming Mega Auction could see him miss future auctions as well after BCCI introduced some new stricter rules in the player regulations for the 2025-27 cycle.

According to a new rule introduced in the IPL Player Regulations, an overseas player who decides to withdraw after being bought in the auction will be banned from the tournament for two years.

However, exceptions can be made in case of injuries and/or medical conditions confirmed by the player's home board. This change was made to stop players from targetting mini-auctions, where bids for marquee players are typically higher than at mega auctions.

Another England player, who has been in and out of action in recent seasons, is also back in the players list for the auction. Pacer Jofra Archer has also entered the auction for a base price of Rs 2 Crore.

Surprisingly, no England player was retained among the 46 retentions announced last month as Buttler and Moeen Ali were released by Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings respectively. However, there will be many takers for England stars with 70 overseas slots left to fill in the auction.