Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Joe Root and Mitchell Starc have decided to skip this year's Indian Premier League (IPL). The star players, big names in international cricket, have decided not to enrol for the mega-auction, to be held on February 12 and 13.
IPL 2022
Stokes, Archer, Root, Starc to skip IPL 2022
Stokes and Archer have previously represented Rajasthan Royals © BCCI/IPL
Root had previously declared that he would have to sacrifice IPL for England and Test cricket, but the absence of Stokes, Archer and Starc was a surprise. Over 1200 players (1214 precisely) have made it to the initial list of the auction register shared with the IPL franchises on Friday night (January 21).
Some of the big international names who have made themselves available are Pat Cummins (Australia, base price Rs 2 crore), David Warner (Australia, Rs 2 crore), Steve Smith (Australia, Rs 2 crore), Quinton de Kock (South Africa, Rs 2 crore), Faf du Plessis (South Africa, Rs 2 crore) and Mark Wood (England, Rs 2 crore). Wood, one of the fastest bowlers, was a prominent absentee from last year's auction.
The South African pace trio of Kagiso Rabada (Rs 2 crore) and Lungi Ngidi (Rs 50 lakh) and Marco Jansen (Rs 50 lakh), who tormented India in the just-concluded Test series, have enrolled themselves for the auction, likely to be held in Bangalore. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has, however, not mentioned the dates and venue of the auction in the mail.
Among others, Dwayne Bravo (Rs 2 crore) has put his name up, but another big name missing from the list is Chris Gayle. The Jamaican has been a regular feature in the IPL since its inception but the West Indies veteran, who is surely near the autumn of his international career, may have realised the diminishing batting returns. The Curran brothers - Sam and Tom - are other glaring absentees in the list but as one understands, both will be out of action during IPL (April-May) due to injuries.
Among the Indians are A-listers like R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik and Shardul Thakur, who all are in the top INR 2 crore reserve price bracket. Former Chennai Super Kings stalwarts Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and Robin Uthappa are also in the 2 crore category, just as Mohammed Shami.
Deepak Chahar has pegged himself at INR 2 crore base price but his cousin Rahul is in INR 75 lakh reserve price group. Pacers Prasidh Krishna and T Natarajan are in the INR 1 crore category while S Sreesanth will be available at 50 lakh onwards. Spinners Washington Sundar and Amit Mishra are in the Rs 1.5 crore classification. Cheteshwar Pujara, the surprise pick in the last auction by Chennai Super Kings, is at 50 lakh. A curious registration in the list is by Manoj Tiwary. A Minister in the West Bengal government, the former India batsman has enrolled for Rs 50 lakh.
After the end of the Ashes recently, Root had explained reasons for skipping the IPL but Starc had hinted that he was contemplating an IPL comeback. "I've not put my name down just yet, but I've got a couple more days to decide on that. It's certainly on the table regardless of what the schedule has got coming up," the Australian pacer had said. Cricbuzz, however