IPL 2025: Mumbai Indians targeting Italian cricketer at mega auction? All you need to know about Thomas Draca

The Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday announced the total number of players (1574) registered for the mega auction. The IPL 2025 auction will be held in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on November 24 and 25 as the mega event goes to the Asian neighbours for the first time in history.

Out of the 1574 players, 1165 are Indians while 409 are from overseas. The list includes 320 capped players, 1224 uncapped players and 30 cricketers from associate nations. Among the 30 in the list, the name of Thomas Draca stood out as he became the first Italian player to register for an IPL auction.

Who is Thomas Draca?

Aged 24 years, Draca is one of the most promising seamers among the associate nations and represented Italy in four matches so far. He made his T20I debut against Luxembourg earlier this year in a match of T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe Qualifier Group A. In four matches, Draca took eight wickets with a best of 3/9.

That’s not all. It is understood that Draca was in Mumbai Indians radar for quite some time and was eventually signed up by five-time IPL champions’ International League T20 (ILT20) franchise MI Emirates for the upcoming season.

It will be interesting to see if the Mumbai Indians scouts are able to convince the management and head coach Mahela Jayawardene to make Draca bowl on Indian soil. The right-arm seamer has registered himself under the all-rounder’s category at a base price of ₹30 lakhs.

Thomas Draca’s recent performances

Draca recently turned out for Brampton Wolves in the Global T20 Canada 2024 and was among the top five bowlers for most wickets in the tournament. In six matches for Brampton Wolves, Draca took 11 wickets with a best of 3/10. However, Wolves were ousted by Toronto Nationals in Qualifier 2.