Chennai, Feb 5: England Test skipper Joe Root and Australian speedstar Mitchell Starc opted out while tainted Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and India’s S Sreesanth were among the 1097 players who registered for the much-awaited IPL auction to be held here on February 18.
Left-arm pacer Arjun Tendulkar, son of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, also enrolled in the auction with a base price of Rs 20 lakh.
A total of 814 players from India and 283 from overseas – registered for the auction with most entries coming from the West Indies (56) followed by Australia (42) and South Africa (38).
While Starc, who last played in the T20 league in 2015, misses out once more, Root — centurion on the first day of the ongoing opening Test against India, too didn’t enroll for the second successive time, joining fellow England players Harry Gurney and Tom Banton, who also did not register. Shakib, who served a suspension by ICC for not reporting corrupt approach, listed at the highest base price of Rs 2 crore, while Sreesanth, who returned to cricket after seven years by featuring in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 for Kerala, set his base price at Rs 75 lakh, according to ESPNCricinfo. The 37-year-old pacer was initially banned for life by BCCI for his role in the spot-fixing scandal in the 2013 IPL but the ban was reduced to seven years in August 2019. Harbhajan Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jason Roy, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett and Colin Ingram — all set their base price at Rs 2 crore. Hanuma Vihari (Rs 1 crore) and Cheteshwar Pujara (Rs 50 lakh), who played pivotal roles in India’s incredible 2-1 Test win over Australia, also registered for the auction.
The current number one T20 batsman in the world, England’s Dawid Malan might make his debut in IPL as he also registered for the auction at a base price of Rs 1.5 crore. (PTI)
