5 big international stars who have been signed as non-auctioned IPL players

Chris Gayle

And the ultimate world class player to not be signed by his team in an auction is none other than the Universe Boss Chris Gayle himself. After being left out by the revamped Kolkata Knight Riders, Chris Gayle—who was going through a very bad patch of form back then—was left unsold in the 2011 IPL auction.

However, an injury to Dirk Nannes meant that he was drafted in as a replacement by Royal Challengers Bangalore. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ironically, 5 years later at the time of writing this article, Chris Gayle finds himself warming the bench for RCB after a dismal IPL 2016. However, that doesn’t change the fact that he has been RCB’s most lethal batsman in the past years.

His best innings was a godly 175 runs blast against Pune that will forever be etched in the hearts of fans. For some, he is the greatest player ever in the history of T20s and his 8847 runs in only 242 innings at an average of 42.53 and a strike-rate of 149.89, works as a testament to that claim.