England pace bowler Mark Wood has decided to pull out from the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction at the last minute. Wood was on the list of 292 players that are going under the hammer on February 18 in Chennai. The Englishman had a base price of Rs 2 crores going into this mini-auction for IPL 2021.
Wood has previously featured in the IPL for Chennai Super Kings during IPL 2018. Since many teams are looking to add overseas pace bowlers to their squads, Wood would have been in demand during this auction.
The 31-year-old fast bowler had joined the England squad for the last two test matches in Ahmedabad. He was rested for the first two Tests of the series as part of England’s rotation policy. It remains to be seen whether Wood will feature in the day-night test match as Jofra Archer has recovered from a minor injury.
Earlier this week, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had granted permission to English players to continue playing in IPL during the first week of June if their teams make it to the knockout rounds of the tournament. The knockout rounds of IPL overlap with the test series between England and New Zealand.
Despite the withdrawal of Wood from the auction, England will be well represented during the auction. Dawid Malan, Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Moeen Ali, and Alex Hales are expected to fetch good fees due to their exploits in T-20 cricket over the last few years. The auction is set to begin at 3 pm on Thursday with Punjab Kings having the biggest purse of Rs 53.20 crores. Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad have the smallest purse worth Rs 10.75 crores.