The IPL 2023 auction will be held later this week – on December 23 in Kochi. Since the mega-auction was held last year, this time it will be a mini-auction.
However, there will be no shortage of overseas superstars in the auction; some of them are making a return to the IPL after missing the last season while some will enter the auction for the first time.
Among the overseas players, high-quality leg spinners will be in demand. Wrist-spinners, as they are also called, have been the go-to spinners for any captain in T20 cricket and have taken over the finger-spinners in the shortest format.
There are a few franchises – such as Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings -who are desperate to have a quality and experienced leg-spinner in their squad and will go hard on them.
Here are the 2 overseas leg-spinners who could return with a million dollars in the IPL 2023 auction:
Adil Rashid
Every year for the past 5-6 years, English pundits have loathed the fact that Adil Rashid hadn’t played in the IPL and had gone unsold on a number of occasions. It was until only 2021 that he was roped in by Punjab Kings and that too, as an injury replacement after going unsold in the 2021 auction. Adil Rashid, however, had a poor IPL debut as he went for 35 runs in 3 wicketless overs, was dropped from the team, released, and again went unsold in the IPL 2022 auction.
Now, though, things have changed. Rashid, who has kept his base price at INR 2 crore, could elicit a bidding war after his terrific performance in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, especially in the two knockouts matches: 1/20 vs India in the semi-final and 2/22 vs Pakistan in the final.
Adil Rashid has an impressive, enviable resume to boast: he’s helped England reach the 2016 T20 WC final, win the 2019 ODI WC and 2022 T20 WC, and reach the 2021 T20 WC semi-final. There perhaps isn’t a more experienced overseas leg-spinner than Adil Rashid in the IPL 2023 auction.
Adam Zampa
Australia’s Adam Zampa was surprisingly not bought by any team in the last IPL auction. However, now that three to four franchises need a proper, experienced leg-spinner, Zampa could bag a hefty contract. His last IPL season was with RCB in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, he picked 2 wickets in 3 matches, and in 2021, Zampa pulled out mid-season due to covid outbreak.
Zampa, who has a base price of 1.5 crore, has been superb for Australia in the past few years and has been their lead spinner in white-ball cricket. Since the start of 2021, Zampa has taken 38 wickets in 32 T20Is – only 4 spinners from Full Member nations have taken more in this time period – while keeping a tight economy of 7.28.
