England spinner Rehan Ahmed has reportedly pulled out from the IPL 2023 auction to focus on playing County cricket. According to PA news agency, the teenager wants to work on his red-ball skills and hence decided to give preference to his county team Leicestershire ahead of the prospect of landing a lucrative deal in the world’s richest T20 league.The 18-year-old Rehan became England’s youngest ever Test cricket when he made his debut in the third and final Test against Pakistan in Karachi.
Following his eye-catching show, it was expected Rehan would end up landing himself a mouthwatering IPL deal at the auction slated to be held on December 23. He entered his name with a base price of Rs 40 lakh. The 18-year-old became the youngest ever to represent England in Test cricket. Also, he became the youngest to take a five-wicket haul on his Test debut as he finished his spell with the figures of 5/48 in Pakistan’s second innings. Overall, he claimed impressive figures of 7/137 on his Test debut.England red-ball head coach Brendon McCullum, who smashed the first-ever century in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the inaugural match of the tournament itself, had backed Rehan Ahmed to bag a deal at the upcoming IPL 2023 mini-auction.The 41-year-old also said that he would encourage the young leggie to play as much franchise cricket as possible.
