Will Joe Root be a part of the Indian T20 League in 2023?

Former English Test Captain Joe Root is planning to be a part of next year’s Indian T20 league. Root was absent from T20 cricket for a long time. Last month, Root planned to put his name in the T20 league auction after 4 years. He last put his name in the Indian T20 League auction in the year 2018 but went unsold at that moment. Among the Fab-4 (Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, Joe Root, and Kane Williamson), Joe Root has the best T20 Strike rate of 126.31 after Virat Kohli whose strike rate is above 137.

In a media Interview, Joe Said, “I would debatably consider entering the league (Indian T20) auction seriously in the hopes of gaining exposure there. It would be wonderful to participate in the ongoing importance of each game and what it signifies”.

Root hasn't been part of England’s T20 side since the year 2019 when he last played against Pakistan at Sophia Gardens. Also, he was not added to the last two T20 World Cup squads. Joe is currently playing only in longer formats, so he wants to get some exposure to Indian soil to adapt to the conditions for the next year’s ODI World Cup. 

When Root was part of the T20 World cup 2016, he played a magnificent inning against South Africa that led them to victory. In that edition, Root scored 249 Runs at an average of 49.80 with a strike rate of 146.47.

Franchises like Lucknow, Delhi, and especially Mumbai surely want to go for Joe as they need a batter who can bat at one and two down with both aggressive and calm gameplay. Steven Smith is the perfect example of Root's case. Last year, Delhi purchased him at a meagre amount of ₹2.2 Cr. when nobody was going for him. But unfortunately, he didn't get enough games and also scored around 100 strike rate when he got the chance.

Root also added that he has no plans to retire from any format or play fewer formats. He said, “I always get rested for the T20Is and I feel like I got alienated from the format because I had not played enough of it”.

After stepping down as Test Captain, this will be very interesting to see which franchisee will seek to get him into the squad.