India, Oct. 2 -- Ravichandran Ashwin has explained why he opted out of the ILT20 2026 Auction during the accelerated round after going unsold initially. Following his IPL retirement in August, he sought opportunities in overseas leagues and set his top-category base price at USD 120,000 (around INR 1.06 crore) for the ILT20 bidding. However, he found no buyers when his name first went under the hammer, which came as a shock to many. While he still had a chance to get picked in the accelerated round, he decided to opt out of it.

Ashwin stated that he had no intention of reducing his base price and would participate in the tournament only if his valuation was met.

"That's the price I wanted as a bare minimum, and I'm happy not to play at ...