Star England batsman Joe Root is strongly contemplating on his putting his name in the forthcoming IPL 2023 auction, which will take place on December 23 in Kochi.
Arguably England’s greatest-ever batter, Joe Root has never been part of the IPL. He was in the IPL 2018 mega-auction but went unsold. And after that he never entered in the IPL auction because of managing his workload as England’s former Test captain and a key part of the ODI team.
With the 2023 ODI World Cup slated in November in India, Root feels getting more exposure to Indian pitches and conditions will be helpful, and for that he is pondering over entering the IPL 2023 mini-auction.
Speaking to the Dailymail, Joe Root said: “I would certainly debate going into the IPL draw quite seriously and hope to get exposure in that tournament. It would be great to get involved in the continuous enormity of each game and how much it means.”
Root has not played a T20I for England since May 2019. When being cast aside in 2019, it was being said that he’d been rested to manage his workload, and in his absence, Dawid Malan cemented his spot at number 3, and Root was never recalled.
The 31-year-old right-hander, though, said that he has no thoughts of retiring from T20Is.
“I have no thoughts or feelings of retirement or slowing down or playing fewer formats. If anything, I feel a little bit more freedom with my time. I always used to get rested for the T20s and I feel like I got alienated from the format because I had not played enough of it.
“You can feel like you are getting left behind a little bit. Now, the next couple of years, might be a good time to explore playing a little bit more of that format and see how far I can take that side of my game,” added Root.
Joe Root’s next focus remains the upcoming Test series in Pakistan. The 3-Test series will kick off on December 1 in Rawalpindi followed by Tests in Multan and Karachi.
