R Ashwin erases the air on ILT20 name name, to play the full season of BBL for Sydney Thunder

The last couple of days have been a roller-coaster ride for ex-India spinner R Ashwin. He was part of the ILT20 auction a couple of days back, but with no potential buyers, he is now expected to play the full BBL season for Sydney Thunders. As per a report in Cricbuzz, Ashwin withdrew from the auction, since his expectations were not met, and will now devote his time to the league in Australia.

As the events unfolded during the auction, he went unsold in the first round, and then withdrew his name from the remaining rounds. He had registered with a base price of $120,000, the highest among the registered players, but then, no franchise seemed interested.

“That’s the price I wanted as a bare minimum, and I’m happy not to play at this stage of my career if my value isn’t met,” Ashwin told Cricbuzz. The veteran spinner also added that he was ready to pull out of ILT20 even before the auction, since the Sydney Thunder deal came through, but still went ahead since he had already committed to it.

“I was about to pull out a few days before the auction because of the Thunder deal, but since I had already committed to the ILT20 that I would enter the auction, I honoured my word. However, I did not agree to lowering my base price,” he said.

“I have signed up with Sydney Thunder for the entire season,” he said. Since he had already verbally committed to ILT20, Thunder and BBL agreed to give him an exemption. But the price had to be higher. Coached by Trevor Baylis, Thunder finished third last season.