England Test skipper Joe Root has put all speculations to rest and confirmed that he will not be taking part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Root had earlier hinted about his possibility on participating in the upcoming season of IPL by registering for next month's mega auctions.
In the press conference, after losing the fifth Ashes Test match in Hobart, the 31-year-old denied entering the upcoming IPL 2022 mega auction. He went on to say that he will sacrifice this chance as England’s Test side needs all his attention at the moment.
“There’s a lot that we need to do for this team, which deserves all of my energy. I’ll keep sacrificing as much as I can because I care so much about Test cricket in our country and trying to get us to where we want to be,” said Joe Root.
The Yorkshire batter is yet to play in the biggest T20 league in the world. England’s red-ball captain had put his name during the mega auction in 2018, he had gone unsold. Root hasn’t entered an IPL auction even once after that. With teams looking for players in leadership roles, IPL 2022 may have been Root's best chance of getting roped in by franchises.
England lost the Ashes 2021-22 by 4-0. Several former cricketers and pundits have blamed IPL as one of the reasons for England’s downfall in red-ball cricket.
Former England captain, Michael Atherton had recently spoken about the Indian T20 league acting as a barrier for English players playing international cricket.
Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler are the only two English players to be retained by their franchises ahead of the mega auction. Ali will be seen representing the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) whereas Buttler will be seen playing for the Rajasthan Royals (RR).
There have been rumours of Mark Wood being interested in playing the IPL once again. He last represented the CSK during the 11th season of the league in 2018.
The upcoming IPL 2022 mega auction will take place on February 12 and 13 and this time, the league is all set to have two new teams in form of Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
