New Delhi: India all-rounder Hardik Pandya is expected to lead the Ahmedabad-based Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise. Sources in the know of developments confirmed to ANI that Hardik is indeed being looked like a captain prospect for Ahemdabad.

“Yes, Hardik Pandya is being looked at as the skipper for Ahmedabad. The final decision is expected to come out soon,” a source in the known development told ANI.

The 2022 mega auction will take place in Bengaluru in the second week of February.

“The auction will be in Bengaluru, the exact date is not finalised. But it would be held between February 11-13,” the source added.

In November last year, all the existing IPL franchises had revealed the list of their retained players ahead of the mega auction of the upcoming season.

Hardik Pandya was released from Mumbai Indians and the all-rounder will lead the newly formed Ahmedabad-based IPL team in the upcoming edition of the tournament.

MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, and Glenn Maxwell are among some of the big names that the existing franchises have decided to retain for IPL 2022.

The two new IPL franchises — Lucknow and Ahmedabad have a budget of Rs 33 crore to pick three players who go back into the pool before the mega auction begins.

For the eight franchises, rules were that they cannot retain more than three Indians (capped/uncapped). They cannot retain more than two overseas players and not more than two uncapped Indian players.

For the two new franchises — Lucknow and Ahmedabad — they cannot pick more than two Indian players (capped/uncapped). They cannot pick more than one overseas player and more than one Indian uncapped player.