Franchises have already started preparing for the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Three teams - Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants - have changed their head coach and now the players are also looking forward to entering the auction of the cash-rich league. The latest player to enter the fray and is excited for the auction is England's Test opener Zak Crawley.
He has played only three ODIs for England and is yet to play T20Is. Crawley, however, is targetting to return to the ODI side later this year on West Indies tour in December. England are likely to rest several first-choice players soon after the World Cup on the Caribbean tour for ODI series. Perhaps, Crawley is looking at playing in the Big Bash League having featured for Hobart Hurricanes before.
However, he is looking at the IPL auction to enter his name for the event if he does well in the lead up in white-ball matches. "It's the biggest franchise tournament in the world. It's the only place to see all the best playing against each other. It's great cricket and to be able to test yourself in that tournament would be awesome.
"We'll see how I go. If I score some runs and it looks like I've half a chance then, then potentially I will [put my name forward]. I'm a realistic guy though, so if I feel like there's no chance then I won't… If I was good enough one day to play in the IPL and someone wanted me, then I'd absolutely love to go," Crawley said while speaking to ESPNCricinfo.
Crawley is currently playing in The Hundred for Manchester Spirit and is glad that the international schedule has allowed the players to feature in the competition for the entire season. "I wanted to get straight into it. I played a bit of the Hundred last year, but that was stop-start… I probably haven't played as much white-ball [cricket] as I would have liked. I'm glad that the schedule now has allowed for the full Hundred. That's why I was very keen to get going and play some white-ball cricket: it looks like it's going to be the future of the game so you don't want to be left behind," Crawley added.
