Batters had been the flavour of the day on the Maharaja Trophy public sale in Bengaluru on Saturday, with Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Manish Pandey all attracting massive bids. However, the most important bid was reserved for middle-order batter Abhinav Manohar, who was signed for INR 15 lakh by Shivamogga Lions, one of many two new franchises together with Mangalore Dragons within the six-team event that's to run from August 13 to 29.

Agarwal was signed for INR 14 lakh by Bengaluru Blasters, whereas Padikkal (INR 13.2 lakh) and Pandey (INR 10.6 lakh) attracted the following highest bids, by defending champions Gulbarga Mystics and Hubli Tigers, respectively.

In all, over 700 cricketers from throughout the state had been slotted and auctioned throughout 4 teams. Category A included India and IPL gamers, whereas Category B comprised those that have performed within the BCCI tournaments on the senior degree. State gamers from throughout the BCCI's age-group tournaments shaped Category C. All different gamers from the state had been bracketed in Category D.

Abhinav Manohar was picked up by Shivamogga Lions for INR 15 lakhs•BCCI

This yr, the event returns to a franchise mannequin following a season by which the KSCA had full management of all cricketing elements - proper from participant drafts to funds to the appointments of coaches and workers. At the time, other than "restoring credibility" after the event had been struck by a collection of spot-fixing controversies, the KSCA stated the shift had been made retaining in thoughts the nation's tax legal guidelines.

Each workforce will play the opposite 5 twice. The high 4 will then compete in Qualifiers and Eliminator, similar to the IPL playoffs system. All matches might be performed on the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Maharaja Trophy squads

Gulbarga Mystics: Devdutt Padikkal, KP Appana, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Srinivas Sharath, LR Chethan, Aqib Jawad, R Smaran, KV Aneesh, Macneil Noronha, Sharan Goud, Abhilash Shetty, Hardik Raj, Shimon Luiz, Avinash D, Yashovardhan Parantap, Aadarsh Prajwal, Abul Hasan Khalid, Shaun Joseph

Hubli Tigers: KC Cariappa, Pravin Dubey, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia, Shrijith KL, Mohammed Taha, Vidhwath Kaverappa, MB Darshan, Shivam MB, Naga Bharath, Santokh Singh, Mohith BA, Manvanth Kumar L, Mitrakant Singh Yadav, Malliksab G, Nathan D'mello, Rakshekar Harikant, Clement Raju

Shivamogga Lions: Abhinav Manohar, Shreyas Gopal, Nihal Ullal, Koushik V, Sharath HS, Kranthi Kumar, Rohan Kadam, Shreyas Puranik, Pranav Bhatia, Vinay Sagar, Aditya Somanna, Adhoksh Hegde, Pavan Shridi, Rohan Naveen, Shivaraj, Rohit Kumar Okay, Nischith Rao, Deepak Devadiga

Mysuru Warriors: Karun Nair, Suchith J, Prasidh Krishna, Shoaib Manager, Samarth R, Karthik CA, Manoj Bhandage, Venkatesh M, Tushar Singh, Kushal Wadhwani, Shashi Kumar Okay, Rakshith S, Shreesha S Achar, Monish Reddy, Aditya Mani, Gautam Mishra, Rahul Singh Rawat, Bharath Dhuri

Bengaluru Blasters: Mithun A, Mayank Agarwal, Pradeep T, Mohammed Sarfaraz Ashraf, Pavan Deshpande, Shubhang Hegde, Nishchal D, Vidyadhar Patil, Jeshwanth Acharya, Jasper EJ, Kumar LR, Mohsin Khan, Aashish Mahesh, Rishi Bopanna, Suraj Ahuja, Aaron Christie, Abhishek Ahlawat, Aman Khan

Mangalore Dragons: Ronit More, Krishnappa Gowtham, Krishnamurthy Siddharth, Nikin Jose, BR Sharath, Prateek Jain, Aniruddha Joshi, Rohan Patil, Gaurav Dhiman, BU Shivakumar, Thippa Reddy, Aaditya Nair, Aditya Goyal, Doddamani Anand, Kruthik Krishna, Gneshwar Naveen, Dheeraj Gowda, Aneeshwar Gautam

Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo