IPL 2023: Players to miss the tournament
Indian Premier League 2023 (IPL) season is months away but the hype and excitement are already grasping the fans’ minds. All ten teams submitted their lists for released and retained players on November 15 and will now focus their attention towards the upcoming 2023 mini-auction which is scheduled to take place on December 23 in Kochi.
Fans and cricketing experts are already predicting some big buys in the auction as a lot of players will be available to go under a hammer. Former England captain and one of the best batters of this generation, Joe Root, has confirmed that he will be playing in the IPL 2023. But there are some big names in world cricket who will be missing the biggest franchise tournament. So, let’s take a look at the players who will be missing IPL 2023.
1. Alex Hales
English opener enjoyed a successful T20 World Cup 2022 tournament with 212 runs from just six innings at a strike rate of 147.22. Hales was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 2022 IPL mega auction but opted out of the tournament citing bubble fatigue as the reason. Hales is set to miss the upcoming 2023 edition of the tournament due to workload issues and has been released by KKR already.
2. Pat Cummins
The new Australian ODI captain remains one of the best bowlers across formats despite his struggles for wickets in the recent T20 World Cup 2022. Cummins joined KKR for a big INR 7.23 crore prices in the 2022 mega auction but struggled with just seven wickets from five innings at a poor economy rate of 10.69. Cummins has now confirmed that he will be missing the IPL 2022 to focus more on Ashes 2023 and the 2023 ODI World Cup.
3. Mitchell Starc
The star left-arm pacer has proven numbers in IPL tournaments with 34 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 7.17. But he last played an IPL game in 2015 for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and was part of KKR during the 2018 edition. Starc is now reported to miss out on playing in IPL 2023 despite recent rumors of his return to the mega tournament.
4. Sam Billings
The experienced wicketkeeper batter was bought by KKR for INR 2 crore in the 2022 IPL mega auction. Billings scored decent 169 runs from eight matches at a strike rate of 122.46 but will be missing the upcoming edition as he confirmed his decision to opt-out from the auction to focus more on the longer format of the game.
