Mitchell Starc chose not to register himself for the upcoming Indian T20 League auctions, pulling out of the cash-rich tournament for the second successive season. While he wanted to focus on preparations for the 2019 World Cup last time, his reasons for not registering this time are unknown.
Starc has featured in the Indian T20 league before for the Bengaluru-based franchise but last played for the team in 2015 and picked 34 wickets in 27 matches at an economy of 7.17. He was bought by the Kolkata-based team in 2018, only to not feature after suffering an injury before start of the season.
However, fellow Australians Chris Lynn, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell, who recently took a break from cricket for mental health reasons, registered themselves for the auctions at the maximum base price of ₹2 crores.
Another big-name player who will not play in the 2020 season is England’s Test captain, Joe Root. The right-hander, who recently hit a double-century in England’s draw against New Zealand in the second Test, has never played in the league before and continues that trend for another season.
Read | Why Joe Root should not be considered part of the big four in Tests
Overall, 971 players, including capped and uncapped players, put in their names in the auction pool. Out of favour Indian batsman, Robin Uthappa had the highest base price among Indians after he registered at ₹1.5 crores.
Joining him in that price range were England’s World Cup winning captain, Eoin Morgan, their maverick opener Jason Roy, all-rounders Chris Woakes, David Willey, Chris Morris among others.
A lot of exciting youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Kishore and Ishan Porel made their mark in India’s domestic tournaments and there are bound to be eyeballs on them.
The auctions are set to be held on December 19 at Kolkata. The franchises have to submit their squad list by December 9, based on which the final auction pool will be decided.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Saeed Khan
