England Star Joe Root 'Disappointed' With IPL 2018 Snub

England Test captain Joe Root has said that he was 'disappointed' after not being picked up by any franchise in the mega Indian Premier League (IPL) auction held earlier this year. Root, along with South African batsman Hashim Amla, were the only two marquee players to go unsold in the IPL 2018 auction. Root said having a big pay day was not his motive behind playing in the Indian T20 league but to improve his skills in the shortest format of the game.

"I was disappointed," Root said. "The reason I wanted to go out there was to play more Twenty20 cricket; it wasn't to go and earn as much money as possible. I'm not in that position. For me, I wasn't going to fit into any one of those (IPL) teams. There's not really much you can do. It was disappointing but it's also very understandable. Sides have a clear idea of what they want their makeup of their team to look like and they build around that," Root was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

"You've just got to get on with the rest of the cricket I can play. It gives me a really good period to make sure everything is set for the start of the Test season back at home but it would have been really nice to have had the experience and everything that the IPL brings to the table."

Root had also given the tri-nation T20I series also involving Australia and New Zealand a miss but returned to the England ODI squad for bilateral ODI series against hosts New Zealand.

A few weeks before the IPL 2018 auction, England coach Trevor Bayliss had said that Root should make himself unavailable for IPL 2018 and take time off to recuperate from a draining Ashes series.

England were outplayed in all departments by hosts Australia as they were hammered 4-0 in the five-Test series, with Root often finding himself completely out of his depth and struggling to find his form.

"We had that discussion a few days ago, I suggested to him that he shouldn't play, that he should have a break," Bayliss had told Sky Sports.

"He feels that whenever he's had a break in the last couple of years, it's always been a T20 series. He wants to play in 50-over World Cups and T20 World Cups.

"He thinks if he keeps missing all the T20 cricket he's just going to fall behind and not be up to speed when those come along.

"It's just a Catch-22 situation. There are difficult decisions to make. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't," the coach added.

In February, Bayliss, who had coached Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to two IPL titles, even said that all Twnety20 internationals be scrapped.

"I wouldn't play T20 internationals, I'd just let the franchises play," Bayliss told Sky Sports.

"If we continue putting on so many games there'll be a certain amount of blowout, not just players but coaches as well."