Liton to go under the hammer at IPL auction

Batter Liton Das is one of four Bangladesh players to be included in the upcoming Indian Premier League 2023 mega auction.

The 28-year-old, who has scored 1780 runs across all formats in 2022, is the second-highest run-getter in the year behind Pakistan's Babar Azam making the year his own following a dismal 2021 that saw him get dropped from the T20I side.

And with a standout performance against India in the recently concluded T20 World Cup where he smashed 60 runs in 27 deliveries and having led Bangladesh to a historic 2-1 ODI series win over the Men in Blue, Liton, by many, has been tipped to be the frontrunner amongst Bangladeshi players to get picked in the auction. His base price has been set at INR 50 Lakhs.

Two-time IPL winner, Bangladesh ace all-rounder, Shakib Al Hasan, speedster Taskin Ahmed, and Afif Hossain are the other players allotted in the auction with Shakib's base price being set at INR 1 crore.  

India captain Rohit Sharma before the first ODI said that Bangladeshi players should get an opportunity as the 35-year-old believes that they would be good enough to make a difference for the teams if chosen.

"I really hope that they get the chance. Because they are a quality team and they have quality players. I really feel, they can make a difference in the IPL," Rohit said when asked about the probability of Bangladesh players making the cut in IPL sides.

"IPL teams have probably not started planning yet. Around the time of the auction they will start thinking, and making different plans about what they want. But I really think that they (Bangladeshi players) should get a chance," he added.

Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman is the only player to be guaranteed a place in the IPL 2023 as he was retained by Delhi Capitals.

Apart from Mustafiz and Shakib, four other Bangladesh players -Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Abdur Razzak, and Tamim Iqbal- were picked up by IPL teams previously.

In the previous season, Taskin Ahmed received a surprise call from Lucknow Super Giants in the latter stage of the tournament but could not make the trip as he had national duties.