England Test captain Joe Root has stated that he is considering entering the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction in 2022, but that he will only do so if he believes it will not affect his Test game. On February 12 and 13, the IPL mega auction will be held in Bengaluru. There will also be two new teams in this edition: Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

“Time is ticking but I have a lot to weigh up. Will it have a negative impact on me playing Test cricket? If I don’t think so then I will put myself in the auction. But I will never do anything that will detract from playing Test cricket for England. It’s so important to make sure that is the priority for me and other players as well,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Root as saying.

Mitchell Starc, an Australian pace bowler, stated on Wednesday that he is considering entering the forthcoming super auction.

Starc has appeared in 27 IPL matches with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), however, he has not played in the competition for some years.

“I’ve got two days to get my paperwork in, so that might be something to do today before training. I’ve not put my name down just yet, but I’ve got a couple more days to decide on that. It’s certainly on the table regardless of what the schedule has got coming up,” cricket.com.au quoted Starc as saying.

“I haven’t been for six years or so. Obviously, with a heavy weighting towards T20s over the last period of time and the World Cup coming up later this year, that’s one to take into consideration as well. There’s a bit going on with scheduling and what-not to get our heads around, certainly for us multi-format players,” he added.

The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) in India gave formal approval to two new IPL franchises on Tuesday: Sanjiv Goenka RPSG Group for the Lucknow franchise and CVC Capital for the Ahmedabad franchise.