Archer late inclusion in IPL auction list

England speedster Jofra Archer has been added back into the IPL final auction list, Cricinfo has reported.

The report read that Jofra's inclusion was only informally confirmed to the franchises on Thursday. The auction is set to begin on November 24 in the in Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

Archer was not initially among the England players that were up for sale in the mega-auction, which was reportedly a move by the ECB to manage his workload. The fast-bowler did not play in this year's IPL in order for the ECB to more effectively manage his workload ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup. In the 2023 edition, Archer suffered a recurrence of an elbow stress fracture while playing for Mumbai Indians, which led to a period of over a year on the sidelines.

The ECB blocked Archer from entering last year's auction to avoid him rushing back from injury, but doing so this year would have left him unable to play in the tournament until 2027 at the earliest.

The IPL has new regulations for this auction cycle which stipulates that if a player has played in the IPL previously but not registered for the mega auction, that player will be unable to be part of the mini auction. Another regulation for the upcoming auction is that if a player withdraws from name from the tournament after being signed in the auction, they will face a two-year ban.