India ODI captain Rohit Sharma believes the Bangladesh cricketers can make a difference for the Indian Premier League teams.
The comment from the Indian skipper has come ahead of the upcoming IPL Twenty20 2023 auction.
A maximum of 87 players can be bought at the upcoming auction (squad strength of 25 each) of the most popular T20 league in the world, of which 30 could be overseas names.
The auction is scheduled for December 23 in Kochi.
A total of 991 players (714 Indians and 277 overseas) are part of the initial list which the IPL shared with the 10 franchises last 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.
“I hope so. I really hope they get a chance because they are a quality team, with quality players. They can make a difference in an IPL team. All the IPL teams have probably not started to plan yet, that's my assumption. Closer to the auction, they will start planning and thinking about what they want to do. But I genuinely feel they should get a chance,” said Rohit to the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka Saturday.
Team India are currently on tour of Bangladesh for three ODIs and two Test matches, with the first ODI slated for Sunday at SBNS.
IPL, since its inception, has not been a regular hunting ground for the Bangladesh cricketers.
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All-rounder Shakib al Hasan has appeared the most in the money-spinning tournament.
Shakib went unsold in the last edition of the tournament and couldn't play the previous one as the cricketer was serving a ban imposed by International Cricket Council.
Mustafizur Rahman follows Shakib with the most appearances in the Indian T20 League.
The left-arm pacer had finished champion in his first season for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Mashrafe bin Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Abdur Razzak and Tamim Iqbal had appeared for a season each.
Right-arm paceman Taskin Ahmed had almost got a call last season but was unavailable due to national duty.
Two Bangladesh veterans Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim participated in the auction several times but never got sold.
It is understood that Shakib, Taskin, Liton Das, Shoriful Islam, Afif Hossain and Nasum Ahmed have registered for the upcoming IPL auction.
Mustafizur on the other hand has confirmed yet another year in the tournament after getting retained by Delhi Capitals.
