IPL 2020: Mitchell Starc, Joe Root shun lucrative contracts and here are some reasons why

Australia bowling star Mitchell Starc has pulled his name out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the second consecutive year. He had missed the last season to be fit for the World Cup and the Ashes.

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Mitchell Starc, Joe Root opt out of IPL 

A leading Indian sports portal confirmed the news that alongside Starc, England Test captain Joe Root will also not be participating in the auction. Although Root has expressed his desire to play in the cash-rich tournament since long, his latest call seems to indicate a shift in his priorities towards managing his workload, building the Test team as well as aiming to excel in England's The Hundred competition in 2020. Starc and Root will be the biggest names missing amongst the 971 players set to go under the hammer to fill just 73 spots. Have they missed the trick this time for a lucrative contract? 

The two players could be a big loss for franchises, who could bank on some overseas experience in the auction. It bears noting that Mitchell Starc was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for an eye-popping price of Rs 9.4 crore in the IPL 2018 Auction but was sidelined for the whole season due to injury. He last featured in the IPL in 2015 when he represented Royal Challengers Bangalore. 

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Chris Lynn and Glenn Maxwell, however, will be up for grabs amongst the Australians and have set their base price at Rs 2 crore. Besides Maxwell and Lynn, the others to list their base price at Rs 2 crore are Australia fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, Australia allrounder Mitchell Marsh, South Africa quick Dale Steyn, and Sri Lanka batsman Angelo Mathews. South Africa quick Chris Morris, who became the only retained player in 2018 was released ahead of the upcoming auction by Delhi Capitals and is also amongst other overseas big names in the auction list.

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The franchises have now been directed to submit the shortlist of their players until 5 PM IST on Monday, December 9. A total of 73 slots are to be filled to make up full squads of all the eight teams. Among 971, 258 are overseas players of which the maximum are from Australia (55) and 2 players are from Associate nations (the USA and the Netherlands) as well.

Aaron Finch and Maxwell had opted out of the auction last season but they are back in the pool. The latter had decided to take a break from international cricket due to mental health concerns recently and even returned to playing club cricket on November 23. But still, his comeback for Australia is not certain. Though Maxwell registering for the IPL auction is a good sign for Australia.

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