"Anybody taking it lightly should not be considered at all" - Sunil Gavaskar's blunt take on overseas players' availability ahead of IPL 2026 Auction

Former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar slammed foreign players who make themselves available for only part of an IPL season. He believes such players should be included in the auction, unless the reason is national engagement.

The upcoming IPL 2026 auction has a few overseas players making themselves only partially available for next season. Australia's Josh Inglis is most notable on the list, confirming that he will likely be available for only 25% of the season due to his wedding.

Talking about such occurrences in his column for the Mid Day, Gavaskar said:

"There are some players who have made themselves available for a limited period. Frankly, if a player doesn't show respect to the IPL and make himself available for the full tournament, he shouldn't even be in the auction. If something, other than national engagement, is more important to him, then not one second of the auction should be wasted on him. The IPL is the best T20 league in the world, and anybody taking it lightly should not be considered at all."

The Punjab Kings (PBKS) released Inglis ahead of the IPL 2026 auction, which will take place in Abu Dhabi on December 16.

"They were all bought at their base prices and were thus hungry to perform" - Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar further expressed his displeasure at uncapped Indian players getting sold for plenty in IPL auctions, more than those putting in the hard yards in the Ranji Trophy. He believes the change in auction dynamics for uncapped players of the present compared to the past has been for the worse.

"Have a look at the first price that all those who have gone on to become great players for India. They were all bought at their base prices and were thus hungry to perform and get more. Now have a look at all the uncapped players bought for crores and see where they are now. Maybe there's a lesson in that somewhere," wrote Gavaskar (via the aforementioned source).

He concluded:

"There is still no salary limit on an uncapped player and so many young fairly unknown players will be bought for sums, for playing 16 days of cricket which will be multiple times that of a Ranji Trophy player who plays for double that many days in mostly empty stadiums. The sad part is most, if not all these youngsters bought for huge sums hardly play in the tournament and are lost to the game after a season or two."

PBKS famously finished runners-up in IPL 2025, fielding several uncapped Indian players, Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Nehal Wadhera, and Shashank Singh, among others, in the playing XI.