As I mentioned in my blog a week or so ago, Kent's worst fears were realised when their newly-elected skipper Sam Billings won a contract for the IPL, he'll be appearing alongside Durham's Mark Wood for Chennai Super Kings. Wood's is another interesting case as you wouldn't - under normal circumstances - begrudge him the chance to earn an extra few quid in a format his body should hold up in having let him down frequently throughout his international career. However, with real hopes of regaining his England Test spot and spending the foreseeable future in the side, would he not be better advised rocking up for Durham for the start of the County Championship in an attempt to get that fragile body battle-hardened for the longer format ? Maybe we should afford him a little more leniency than most on his decision and just hope he gets through the competition unscathed.
Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes once again secured excellent financial packages as did the surprise package Joffra Archer. Now here is a talented individual; able to propel the ball down in excess of 90mph, very athletic in the field and if that isn't enough he's no stranger to clubbing the ball out of the park! An Andre Russell-type multi-functional cricketer that has earned himself a cool £793,200 when he was picked up by the Rajasthan Royals.
Along with Archer Sussex will also miss the services of Chris Jordan who was retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad, but last year's big IPL signing Tymal Mills misses out in a rather heavy fall from grace. Not that that helps Sussex out any in the early stages of the season. What will help them out is the fact very few players these days turn down the riches of this T20 cash cow in order to play county cricket; there is one player that wants to continue developing his first class cricket, though sadly for England this commitment to the longer form is being demonstrated by Aussie Mitchell Marsh. Impressive on his return to the Australian Test side during the Ashes and eager to build on that and solidify his spot in the middle order, any advances from IPL franchises were most unwelcome as Marsh has preferred the east coast of England to work on the format he has chosen to prioritise. Respect.
On the whole Yorkshire and Middlesex will be the sides most pleased with how the IPL auction went; they had five and four players respectively hoping to win a lucrative IPL contract, including England internationals Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Steven Finn, Dawid Malan and England's limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan. Quite amazingly, none of these players were signed up. Root is a fantastic bat in any format, we know how useful a commodity a leg-spinner is yet Rashid was ignored. Morgan's IPL experience and short-format skills were not enough for the franchises to overlook his current slump in form. Surely one of these three in particular were worth a punt ?! How much the two counties will see of their England players may be negligible anyway but at least they'll get some game time with their clubs.
Nottinghamshire will also be delighted with Alex Hales likely to be available for them aswell as Harry Gurney and Samit Patel. Hales is another player I would have thought would have been worth a gamble for one of the franchises, but instead he can bed in into Notts middle order to try and build an emphatic case for Test cricket inclusion somewhere down the line.
If Yorkshire and Middlesex were pleasantly surprised, there will have been no shock for Lancashire and Surrey to see Jos Buttler and Jason Roy heading off to India for the tournament. Two players with genuine x-factor with the stick; highlighted by their centuries in the recent Australia one-day series. Buttler will line up alongside England team-mate Stokes (and Archer) at Rajasthan Royals, while Roy, whose chances were limited at Gujarat Lions in 2017, has moved on to Delhi Daredevils. Both look like absolute bargains at £480,000 (Buttler) and £164,000 (Roy).
Recently promoted to Division One, Worcester will have to start the campaign without Moeen Ali, he makes his debut in the tournament and has signed for Royal Challengers Bangalore alongside Woakes. By now though I'd imagine Worcester welcome Ali's appearances for the county as a bonus and no pre-season reliance on the spinner will have been planned for.
The majority of the players bought were as expected but surely the franchises have missed more than a trick or two by omitting some fine English cricketers that could have been picked up for pittance even if there is some doubt over their availability over the next couple of years. Not that Middlesex, Yorkshire or Notts will be doing too much complaining.
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