Who is Jake Draca? The Italian player who has buzzed the internet after registering for the upcoming IPL auction

In the upcoming IPL 2025 mega auction scheduled to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 24th and 25th November, players up to 1574 from 17 countries have applied for registration. Out of the total 1574 players, 409 are foreign players while 48 are Indian players with experience in international cricket. While the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, and KL Rahul are set to trigger a huge bidding war during the mega auction, an Italian player also has put his name for the auction

One of the latest registered 24 years old player for the IPL 2025 mega auction is an Italian cricketer, Thomas Jack Draca. So far, Draca has played four T20Is for Italy, during which he took eight wickets. He is the first player from his country to register for the player auction of the world’s richest franchise cricket league.

Draca is a right-arm medium fast bowler, he made his T20I debut for Italy against Luxembourg on 29 June 2024, in a match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe Qualifier Group A held in Spinaceto.

Draca, who took 11 wickets in 6 games in July August 2024 with the Brampton Wolves in the Global T20 Canada, was roped in by sister franchise of Mumbai Indians MI Emirates for the 2025 season of ILT20 in September, and should the auction take place, it would not be a surprise if the Mumbai team would show interest in him.

On the list of overseas players that have registered for the Indian Premier League 2025 mega auction, 91 players are of South African nationality while 76 are Australians. Mitchell Starc, who sold for 24.75 crores for KKR during the IPL 2024 auction, has kept a base price of Rs 2 crores. He as well as Steve Smith, Australia’s T20I captain Mitchell Marsh and former opener David Warner will all go under the auction.

A total of 52 cricketers from England are signed up for the auction, however, Test skipper Ben Stokes has decided to refrain from taking part in the lucrative tournament. It has been claimed that Stokes is more interested in playing Test matches for his country. He also wishes to spend that period (mid-March to end of May) preparing for the 5 Tests in India and the Ashes series.

Nevertheless, James Anderson, an ex-England fast bowler who hasn’t played a T20 since 2014, has put himself in the auction with a base price of Rs 1.25 crore