The IPL Auction always springs a surprise when some of the big players go unsold. In 2018 as well, there some big names that didn’t attract any buyers. The biggest name in that list was Joe Root. It was the first time that the Englishman had registered for a place in the IPL but he didn’t bag any bids from any of the 8 franchises.
Root is considered one of the best batsmen of the modern era and constitutes the so-called fab-four alongside Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson. It was expected that the franchises would want to add a player of this quality to their units but it didn’t turn out to be the case.
Joe Root desired to play more T20 cricket
The English skipper of the longest format of the game recently revealed that he was disappointed on being left out. He wanted to get the exposure in the prestigious league and wished to play more T20 cricket. While he felt disheartened, he also understands that he might not have been fit in any of the team’s setup.
“I was disappointed. The reason I wanted to go out there was to play more Twenty20 cricket; it wasn’t to go and earn as much money as possible. I’m not in that position,” said Joe Root as quoted by Cricbuzz.
“For me, I wasn’t going to fit into any one of those [IPL] teams. There’s not really much you can do. It was disappointing but it’s also very understandable. Sides have a clear idea of what they want their makeup of their team to look like and they build around that. You’ve just got to get on with the rest of the cricket I can play,” further added the right-hander.
Now that the 27-year-old won’t be seen in the Indian T20 league, he would be utilizing the time to gear up for the Test season that would follow the IPL. First, England will host Pakistan for 2 Tests and then the Indian team is lined up to tour England for a series across all formats.
“It gives me a really good period to make sure everything is set for the start of the Test season back at home but it would have been really nice to have had the experience and everything that the IPL brings to the table,” concluded Root.
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