IPL 2021: Mitchell Starc and Joe Root will not feature in the auction

Things are progressing fast for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). After the franchises announced the list of the retained and released players last month, the BCCI has now revealed that as many as 1097 cricketers have registered for the upcoming auction. The event is set to take place in Chennai on February 18, a day after the end of the second Test between India and England, from 3 PM onwards.

Like every season, a lot of foreign players from 15 countries have registered for the auction. As many as 283 overseas cricketers are hoping to get a bid with only 22 slots to be filled among them. 42 cricketers from Australia and 21 from England have decided to take part in the auction.

However, according to the reports in Cricinfo, Mitchell Starc and England’s Test skipper Joe Root have not registered for the auction. This comes as a huge news for the teams who were eyeing to pick the two top players for the upcoming IPL season. Starc could possibly be eyeing the T20 World Cup in India later this year while Joe Root is currently in India and will be in the bubble for the four-match Test series.

He might also be the part of the three-match ODI series to be played in the last week of March and it seems that he wants the break as well.

James Pattinson to take a break

Another Australia pacer James Pattinson has also decided to take a break and hasn’t registered for the upcoming IPL auction. He played for the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2020 and performed decently but the franchise released him last month alongside Nathan Coulter-Nile.

Among others to register for the auction are Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar‘s son, Arjun Tendulkar who made his debut for Mumbai’s senior team in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last month, and S Sreesanth who made a comeback for Kerala after a hiatus of more than seven years from the sport. Sreesanth has kept his base price of Rs 75 lakh and it remains to be seen if any team bids for him in the auction.