Zaheer Khan's Name Absent From List Of Players For IPL Auction 2018
Published - 20 Jan 2018, 06:09 PM | Updated - 22 Aug 2024, 11:48 PM
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), today, announced the list of 578 players who will be going under the hammer on the IPL auction day. The biggest surprise was the absenteeism of Zaheer Khan from the list. Though he retired from international cricket way back in 2015, he continued to play IPL even after that.
In fact, he was the captain of Delhi Daredevils in the previous season as well. He has not announced his retirement from IPL, officially, and his name is missing from the list is a big surprise.
It is to be noted that when he was appointed as the bowling consultant of Indian cricket team last year, then, one of the major reasons behind him not taking up the job was that he wanted to play IPL, as the reports suggested at that time.
It can be assumed that he might take up the coaching job from this year, just like Ashish Nehra. The left-arm pacer retired from international cricket last year in November and has already joined the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) franchise as the bowling coach, replacing Bharat Arun, who is now the bowling coach of Indian cricket team.
Delhi Daredevils though have confirmed their Head Coach in the form of Ricky Ponting, but they haven’t announced the fast bowling coach. Zaheer Khan was the mentor cum player for the franchise last year. There can be a case when he might join the same franchise in the bowling coach role. Though, there is no such confirmation or indication by the franchise
In the list of 578 players announced by BCCI, a total of 360 players are Indian while the remainder of the players are from other countries. A total of 10 players from Afghanistan have also signed up for the league while Paul Stirling is the lone player from Ireland to sign up for the league.
The auction for the upcoming T20 tournament will take place on January 27 and 28 in Bangalore where on day 1, capped players will be up for sale while on day 2, the uncapped players will be available.
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