With the full IPL auction list now out for the mega event in Saudi Arabia, eyebrows have been raised because of some of the names missing from the roster. Some absences are easily explained, while others are harder to fathom. Here, we look at seven high-profile names who won’t come under the auctioneer’s anvil next weekend.
Ben Stokes
Since the Covid-19-affected 2020 season, Stokes has barely played in the IPL. Having won both the World Cup and the T20 World Cup with England, his eyes are now firmly set on winning England an Ashes series in Australia for only the second time this century. With that in mind, Stokes is likely to spend part of the 2025 summer playing some red-ball cricket for Durham.
Cameron Green
Green enjoyed a stellar first season in the IPL with Mumbai Indians (2023), but didn’t do much to justify a transfer to Royal Challengers Bengaluru last year. A lower-spine fracture sustained on the white-ball tour of England earlier this year has ruled him out for the foreseeable future. Like Stokes, his energies, once he recovers, are going to be on the Ashes, which start in Australia late next year.
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Chris Lynn
Another whose omission comes as no surprise. When he topped 400 runs with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in consecutive seasons in 2018 and ’19, Lynn was one of the most-feared openers in the game. Since then, he has played one IPL game, for Mumbai Indians in 2021. Though he has done well recently with the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League (BBL), it’s highly unlikely that the 34-year-old Lynn will return to the IPL.
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Matthew Wade
Wade is now retired from international cricket, and eyeing up coaching roles. He played a part in Gujarat Titans’ unexpected title win in 2022, but was only a bit-part player last season, when he played two games. An overall IPL strike-rate of 103 was unlikely to elicit much interest from the franchises.
Wriddhiman Saha
Like Wade, Saha was part of Gujarat’s title triumph in 2022, when he made 317 runs at a strike-rate of 122.39. Scorer of a stunning century in the 2014 final, which his Kings XI Punjab team narrowly lost to KKR, Saha was noted for his occasional blitzes at the top of the order. But a shockingly poor 2024 season – 136 runs in nine innings at a strike-rate of 118 – and the fact that he is now 40 has meant a complete lack of interest in a player who had played every campaign since the first in 2008.
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