England batsman Morgan opts out of IPL

England's middle-order batsman Eoin Morgan has withdrawn his name from the Indian Premier League players' auction to concentrate on winning his place back in the national Test side following Kevin Pietersen's sudden retirement from international cricket.

Morgan took to Twitter to announce his decision just 48 hours before the start of the IPL players' auction on February 12 in Bangalore.

"I would like to thank @IPL for accepting my request to withdraw from this year's auction. Good luck with the tournament," Morgan wrote on his twitter page.

Morgan has decided to focus on playing for Middlesex in the County Championship in order to fill the void left by Pietersen in the England team.

Morgan has not played Test cricket for two years and his last outing in all white was against Pakistan in Dubai in early 2012.

The left-hander and Ian Bell were the only two centrally contracted players in the IPL auction.

Morgan played for the Gautam Gambhir-led Kolkata Knight Riders in last year's edition, scoring 307 runs from 14 matches. However, he was not retained by the franchise for the seventh edition of the IPL.

Morgan has a base price of Rs 1.5 crore for the auction.

The 27-year-old has played 16 Tests for England, scoring 700 runs at an average of 30.43.