The IPL 2023 auction will start on Friday afternoon. For a change, this time the auction will be held in Kochi, instead of Banglore, where it had been happening for the past few years. Since this is a mini-auction, it will be only a one-day event; the IPL 2022 mega-auction spanned across two days.
As many as 405 players – 273 are Indians and 132 overseas – are set to go under the hammer, out of which a maximum of 87 slots, with up to 30 overseas slots, can be filled during the auction.
The three top brackets for the auction are of INR 2 crore, 1.5 crore, and 1 crore.
In this article, we opine on 5 players who we feel have set their base price a bit too high for them to get attraction in the first round of the auction at least.
Here are 5 players who seem to have set their base price too high in IPL 2023 auction:
Chris Jordan (2 Crore)
Chris Jordan has been part of four different franchises in his IPL career – Chennai Super Kings, Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad – between 2016 to 2022.
The fact that he has not been at any single franchise for more than two seasons tells that his performance – 27 wickets in 28 matches at an economy of 9.32 – in the IPL hasn’t impressed the franchises and therefore he gets released. Perhaps he hasn’t been at this best – the renowned T20 bowler hailed in England that he is – in Indian and sub-continent conditions.
After being released by CSK – in IPL 2022, he picked 2 wickets in 4 matches leaking more than 10 runs an over – Jordan has put himself the highest price category. He might even go unsold, but one would feel that the reputation and experience he brings, some franchise might pick him at his base price.
Craig Overton (2 crore)
Yes, Craig Overton is a lanky overseas seamer – something IPL franchises drool over – who has played in 70 T20s – none of which is for England – but perhaps Overton is expecting too much here setting his base price of 2 crore.
He has played 8 Tests and 7 ODIs for England with ordinary, and doesn’t even get close to England’s T20 squad. He has featured in just one The Hundred match so far.
Jamie Overton (2 crore)
Just like his twin brother Craig, Jamie Overton seems to be shooting his shots by putting himself in the 2 crore category. Both of them are unlikely to be picked in the maximum 30 overseas cricketers that can be sold in this auction.
Jamie, a pacer like his brother and slightly better with the bat, has played 1 Test for England and no white-ball internationals. In 83 T20s, he has taken 67 wickets, at an economy of more than 9.
There remains a slim to none chance of either Jamie or Craig getting bought up at the IPL 2023 auction.
Angelo Mathews (2 Crore)
Senior Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews is targeting another IPL stint, however, that he hasn’t been bought in the IPL auction after 2017, and that he has put himself in the 2 crore bracket, all but means that he won’t get another gig in the tournament as a player.
Mathews played in 49 IPL matches between 2009 and 2017 for three different teams with little impact on the team’s fortunes. He also hasn’t played a T20I or ODI for Sri Lanka since March 2021. The former Lankan captain, at the age of 35, isn’t getting any younger either.
Chris Lynn (2 crore)
Once a fearsome marauder of the bowlers in the IPL, Chris Lynn has lost the sheen with his bat, at least as far as the IPL is concerned in the past few seasons. Lynn isn’t the same force as he was when he had been at KKR; he’s toned down a notch in his batting, and even now bats at number 3 for his BBL team.
Mumbai Indians brought him at his base price of 2 crore as a back up opener and played him in only 1 match in 2020 when de Kock was unavailable, and benched him throughout the 2021 season before releasing him.
Lynn then went unsold in the IPL 2022 mega-auction when also he’d set his base price of 1.5 crore. Now that his base price is 2 crore – plus a spate of young Indian aggressive top-order batters available – Lynn is unlikely to be picked up in the IPL 2023 auction.
2 crore bracket: Nathan Coulter-Nile, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Jamie Overton, Craig Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Kane Williamson, Rilee Rossouw, Rassie van der Dussen, Angelo Mathews, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder
1.5 crore bracket: Sean Abbott, Riley Meredith, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Shakib Al Hasan, Harry Brook, Will Jacks, Dawid Malan, Jason Roy, Sherfane Rutherford
1 crore bracket: Mayank Agarwal, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Moises Henriques, Andrew Tye, Joe Root, Luke Wood, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Heinrich Klaasen, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kusal Perera, Roston Chase, Rakheem Cornwall, Shai Hope, Akeal Hossein, David Wiese
