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India's biggest cricketing festival is almost there. The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is slated to begin in the last week of March. But before that, the mega auction will be taking place which isn't too far either. Four days from today, cricket fans will see a bidding war between the ten franchises. Every team wants the best pool of 25 players, but it is to be seen who takes the best ones.
The mega auction will kick off with the first set (marquee set) of players. The ten names who have been included in the marquee set are Shreyas Iyer, R Ashwin, Faf du Plessis, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammad Shami, Quinton de Kock, David Warner, and Pat Cummins. All these players have played a pivotal role for their franchises in the past and thus will attract bigger bids.
While it is obvious that they will be happy to represent any franchise that picks them but some of them already have a team in their mind, having played for so long in the league.
R Ashwin is one of those on this list. The right-arm off-spinner cum all-rounder made his IPL debut with Chennai Super Kings and wishes to go back to his first franchise when the mega auction takes place. In a recent talk with former IPL auctioneer Richard Medley, Ashwin revealed the same.
"I'm actually not too sure, but to be honest, a professional player going anywhere giving his best must be the ideal way to go about it. But yeah, I am 35 now, it will be nice to come back to where I started but they already have an off-spinner with them in Moeen Ali. So I don't know how they gonna go about it, so let's wait and watch," said Ashwin.
Will CSK go after Ashwin?
The off-spinner himself hinted that the Tamil Nadu-based franchise might not be interested in picking him at the mega auction. They already have a world-class spinner in Moeen Ali who has fared decently so far in the yellow jersey. Apart from picking wickets, Ali is contributing regularly with the bat. Thus, it will be nothing less than naive for CSK management to go big after Ashwin.
