Four players who may not attract bidders at IPL 2023 Auction

The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises will be making their final round of analysis as they prepare to strengthen or freshen up their squads for the next season at the upcoming IPL 2023 Auction.

A total of 405 players will go under the hammer with only the first 86 set to be called out for the auction, while the remaining 319 will be trimmed down and auctioned in an accelerated process.

With up to 87 players including a maximum of 30 overseas slots to fill, all the ten franchises will already have an idea of what areas they will need to strengthen heading into the auction, which is scheduled to be held in Kochi on December 23.

While some star names like Sam Curran, Cameron Green, Ben Stokes among others are expected to attract huge interest, some name are likely to go unsold or may not attract huge bids.

Over the years, we have seen some big name players go unsold or get picked for their base price for example the last mega auction saw players like Eoin Morgan, Suresh Raina and Steve Smith fail to attract bidders.

As expected, a few unsold players in IPL 2022 auction are not in this year's auction, but there is a chance that few more stalwarts of the game could follow them after the IPL auction 2023.

Here we take a look at four players who may not attract bids at the IPL 2023 Auction:

Ishant Sharma (Base Price: Rs 50 Lakhs)

The veteran Indian pacer, who failed to get the paddles raised in the mega auction earlier this year, may once again face the same disappointment on December 23. He has so far played in 93 matches in IPL, taking 73 wickets.

In his last two seasons in IPL in 2020 and 2021, Ishant played just 4 matches. Although his base price is very less compared to that of the 2022 auction, Ishant being phased out of the Indian team, may not help his cause despite his involvement in domestic circuit for Delhi.

Joe Root (Base Price: Rs 1 Crore)

The England batter has never played in the IPL and has only registered his name for the second time in the auction.

In 2018 auction, Root failed to attract bidders, and that may be the case this time as well. He has not been part of England's T20 set up and has only played a handful of matches in the shortest format.

His last appearance in T20 was in 2019. He also is part of The Hundred, but has hardly played in that format as well. So, it is very likely that the Test run-machine will miss out on landing an IPL deal.

Ajinkya Rahane (Base Price: Rs 50 Lakhs)

The Indian batter has played in 158 matches in IPL, scoring over 4000 runs, but his dipping strike rate was a cause for his exclusion from the playing 11 most often.

As it stands, the former India Test captain is no longer part of the national team set up even in the red-ball format as well. He, however, has had a decent run in the domestic circuit with Mumbai, which may get him a deal.

Like last season, Rahane may end up being picked for his base price as he is an Indian player, but the chances of that is also very slim.

Kane Williamson (Base Price: Rs 2 Crore)

The New Zealander has been ever-present in the IPL and has also captained a franchise during his tenure. In his 76 IPL appearances, Williamson has scored over 2000 runs, but has struggled to score at brisk pace in recent seasons, forcing Sunrisers Hyderabad to release their skipper ahead of the auction. Like Rahane, he too may get picked up for base price.