IPL Auction: The Caribbean pyrotechnic batter, Evin Lewis gives justification for his decision to withdraw from the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, which will take place on the 23rd of December.
The IPL auction would be held at Kochi and a total of 405 players have been shortlisted for the mini-auction. The majority of the 277 international players hail from Australia and South Africa. Ben Stokes and Sam Curran, who was the player of the tournament in the recently concluded World T20 are set to be among the 31 England players.
The West Indies also had a large pool of players (33) earlier that have enrolled for the IPL auction, however, the new 20-player shortlist was lacking one prominent Windies player – Evin Lewis.
The 30-year-old Evin Lewis made his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in 2018, where in his inaugural season the Trinidad batter stitched 382 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 138.4, which included two half-centuries.
However, after a harrowing 2019 season where he only managed to net 48 runs in 3 innings, Mumbai Indians released him and he was recruited by Rajasthan Royals henceforth up until the mega-auction previous year.
“I Was Expecting More Opportunities”, Evin Lewis
Caribbean players have had a large bulk of influence on the IPL throughout the years, and players like Andre Russell, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine, and Kieron Pollard have become well-known personalities in cricket largely due to their prowess in the IPL.
The southpaw Evin Lewis also attained a scant window of opportunity in the previous season representing Lucknow Super Giants but he had an ill-fated run. As Lucknow Super Giants are already well-equipped with two seasoned openers (Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul), the Windies batter was bound to wangle finite opportunities.
Nonetheless, after being experimented on at number 3 or below, Evin Lewis only managed to chalk up 73 runs in 5 innings and at a strike rate of 130.4. Moreover, Lewis secured a half-century in his 73-run stint in IPL 2022, and his 55 (23)* against Chennai Super Kings was Evin Lewis’ only notable performance in the season.
Now, ahead of the IPL auction, the KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants has released Evin Lewis for 2 crores and following his disquieting extricating, Evin Lewis renounces his name for the upcoming IPL auction.
Evin Lewis said in an interview, “I wish everyone all the best for the auction. I am actually taking a bit of a break from that cricket until I get back to where I need to be.”
“I was probably expecting a little more opportunities, I didn’t get that. I think the franchise Lucknow is actually a good franchise. Good coaching staff and a good bunch of players, and everyone trying to keep a good family base together. My experience was largely good and I enjoyed, to be honest,” Lewis added.
Despite Lewis’ debacle with the bat, Lucknow Super Giants concluded their maiden IPL season at third position, with 9 wins out of 14 league games. The RPSG Group-owned franchise thrived up to the playoffs before the Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bangalore hindered their aspirations of outstretching to the finals.
