Nottinghamshire could field all of their England players in the early part of the domestic season after Samit Patel missed out on an IPL fortune.

Patel didn’t receive a bid in the auction in Goa and is expected to be available to Notts until preparations begin for England’s ODI against West Indies on Thursday 21st May.

“It will be a bonus to have Samit around for the first month of the season when we had planned to be without him,” said Notts Director of Cricket Mick Newell.

“We understood before the auction that Delhi had changed their minds despite their early interest but I still expected him to be drafted to a team because he is a good all-round one day player.

“I didn’t expect to see a situation where we would have all of our England players around but there’s a good chance that Samit, Graeme, Ryan and Stuart will all be available for the LV County Championship game against Lancashire at Old Trafford at a time when Andrew Flintoff will be with the IPL.”

Flintoff and Pietersen attracted the highest bids in the auction, with Chennai and Bangalore respectively pledging $1.55million each to secure their services.

Of the other England players in the draft, Ravi Bopara was signed by Kings XI Punjab for $450,000 and Owais Shah ($375,000) and Paul Collingwood ($275,000) joined Delhi, but Patel and Luke Wright weren’t drafted.