England batsman Jason Roy’s decision to withdraw from the IPL 2022 tournament ahead of the tournament, according to cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra, has created a difficult situation for his IPL franchise Gujarat Titans.
In the IPL 2022 auction, Gujarat Titans, one of the two new IPL teams for the next season, paid INR 2 crore for Roy’s base price.
According to reports, Roy informed the Gujarat Titans of his decision to withdraw from the tournament due to bio-bubble concerns. The franchise has yet to consider a replacement.
Jason Roy withdraws from IPL 2022
While Roy’s absence would put Gujarat “in a soup,” Akash Chopra believes the opener’s future participation in the competition is also in doubt.
Roy has opted out of the IPL for the second time after being selected by a franchise in the IPL auction. Roy was selected by Delhi Capitals for his then-base price of INR 1.5 crore in IPL 2020, but the Surrey player opted out of the cash-rich league for personal reasons.
“Bio-bubble fatigue is REAL. Nobody should ever trivialize it. One could understand why Roy has pulled out of the IPL. That said…it puts GT in a soup. And IPL remembers who pulled out & when…and that affects future purchases of the same player. It’s not heartless but pragmatic,” Chopra said.
Roy went unsold in the IPL 2021 auction but was drafted in as Mitchell Marsh’s replacement by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Roy has 329 runs at an average of 29.90 and a strike rate of 129.01 in 13 IPL games, including two half-centuries.
Akash Chopra believes the Titans’ planning ahead of the auction was inadequate. Chopra appeared irritated by Gujarat’s decision to spend so much money on David Miller, who has been largely inconsistent throughout the tournament.
“I am not at all happy with David Miller’s purchase. He might prove me wrong; he has done once earlier also that if it is in the arc, it goes out of the park. It might happen again, but they spent too much money,” said Chopra.
“They could have picked Sam Billings; they would have got him cheaper than Miller; he would have been another wicketkeeping option. There were better middle-order batters – I thought about Rassie van der Dussen; I was thinking about Steve Smith also, or I was even thinking that you could have kept Ajinkya Rahane,” he added.
