Raza’s price tag revealed ahead of IPL auction

Zimbabwe cricket team star Sikandar Raza has set his price at INR 50 lakhs (approximately US$61,408.80) for the 2023 IPL auction scheduled on December 23 in Kochi, India.

A total of 991 players (714 Indian and 277 overseas) are part of the initial long list which the IPL shared with the 10 franchises on Thursday.

The IPL will prune this down based on input from the franchises, who have until December 9 to get back to the tournament authorities.

Raza, who enjoyed a memorable season with the Zimbabwe cricket team is among the favourites to be signed up during the IPL and the franchises will surely put some effort to purchase the batsman’s services for the next season.

The gifted allrounder, who is one of the six Zimbabwean players to have initially entered their names for the upcoming IPL draft, was one of the top performers in the recently-concluded ICC T20 World Cup in Australia where he aggregated 219 runs in eight innings.

It is also worth mentioning Raza smashed 11 sixes in the competition, more than any other batsman in the showpiece event.

The Pakistan-born Zimbabwe star also boasts of an impressive record in T20 cricket.

Raza has played 66 games in Twenty20 Internationals wherein he scored 1259 runs at an average of 21. Overall, he has slammed as many as six half-centuries to his name.

He will be aiming to become the first Zimbabwe player to play in the IPL in almost a decade.

Former Zimbabwe player Brendan Taylor was part of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s squad in IPL 2014 but never played a single match for the Orange Army. He was subsequently released ahead of IPL 2015.

Ray Price (Mumbai Indians) and Tatenda Taibu (Kolkata Knight Riders) are the other Zimbabwe players who have participated in the IPL.

Meanwhile, Raza, who was part of the Chennai Braves in the Abu Dhabi T10 League which ended on Sunday will now head to Sri Lanka for the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2022 which begins on December 6 in Hambantota.

Raza will feature for the Dambulla Giants in the upcoming edition of the tournament which will see the participation of a number of other star international cricketers such as Evin Lewis, Carlos Brathwaite, Janneman Malan, Dwaine Pretorius, D’Arcy Short, and Shoaib Malik, among several other players.

The Zimbabwean star is also expected to feature in the newest T20 competition the IL-T20 event in the United Arab Emirates from January 13 to on February 12.