Aaron targets county success with Leicester to shrug off IPL snub

Varun Aaron has shrugged off the disappointment of being left unwanted at this year’s IPL auction with the India paceman instead channelising his focus on striving for a successful county stint in England.

Despite being overlooked by all eight franchises, the 28-yearold is now armed with a deal to play for Leicestershire in the early part of the 2018 County Championship, a stint he hopes will put his career back on track.

“I was not really thinking about whether I’d be picked or not in the IPL auction,” said Aaron, who has represented the Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Punjab franchises. “It was more a case of which team is going to pick me. But when it didn’t happen, it was a shocker for sure,” added the right-arm bowler.

“But it took me a few minutes to snap out of it. For the amount of hard work I have put in, for all that I have come through, I feel there’s bigger things in store.

“When we talk after six months, then I can tell you that it’s the best thing to have happened to me. I really feel this might be the turning point,” he said, looking forward to his spell in England. After the snub, Aaron set his sights on county cricket and an unlikely door opened when Leicestershire asked him to fill the ‘overseas player’ void left by Pakistan seamer Mohammad Abbas, who will be busy on national duty.

Aaron said he always wanted to experience county cricket and the IPL snub made his decision to head to Britain that much easier.

“I even considered skipping IPL last year to play county cricket. I spoke to my colleagues and my coaches who said ‘No, you must play in the IPL, it’s a big thing in the calendar’ and stuff like that,” he said.

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