5 players who surprisingly went unsold at the IPL 2023 auction

The much-hyped Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 auction concluded on Friday, December 23, in Kochi. After plenty of drama on the auction table and some bidding wars, a total of 80 players were sold to the 10 franchises, with 29 of them being overseas cricketers. The mini-auction saw a total of ₹167 crore being spent by the teams.

England all-rounder Sam Curran created history by becoming the most expensive player ever in the Indian T20 league. He was purchased by the Punjab Kings (PBKS), his former franchise, for a whopping ₹18.50 crore. The windfall for Curran doesn’t come as a surprise in the wake of his exploits at the T20 World Cup 2022.

Apart from Curran, Australian all-rounder Cameron Green was bought for ₹17.50 crore as Mumbai Indians (MI) shelled out a huge amount for his services. Seasoned England all-rounder Ben Stokes was sold for ₹16.25 crore to Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Nicholas Pooran was purchased by the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for ₹16 crore, while another in-form England player, Harry Brook, was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for ₹13.25 crore.

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Players who were expected to be sold at IPL 2023 auction, but weren’t

While every year a number of players walk away with hefty deals after an IPL auction, some cricketers surprisingly end up unsold.

In this feature, we look at five such players in the latter category after the IPL 2023 auction.

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#1 Rehan Ahmed

Rehan Ahmed celebrates a wicket during the T20 Blast. Pic: Getty Images

There was plenty of hype over young England leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed after his sensational Test debut in Pakistan. The youngest male England cricketer to make his Test debut also became the youngest player to take a five-fer on debut in men’s Test cricket. The 18-year-old claimed 5/48 in the second innings of the Karachi Test to set up England’s historic 3-0 whitewash.

Leggies are in great demand in the IPL and many experts believed that Ahmed could find a place in one of the 10 squads. The youngster has made an impressive start to his T20 career, claiming 21 wickets in 19 matches at an average of 22.57 and an economy rate of 7.38.

At a price of ₹50 lakh, he could have been a good budget buy for some of the IPL franchises.

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#2 Dasun Shanaka

Sri Lankan white-ball captain Dasun Shanaka. Pic: Getty Images

Sri Lanka’s white-ball skipper Dasun Shanaka is a highly underrated all-rounder in world cricket. Plenty of eyebrows were raised when he was named Sri Lankan captain at a time when he had not established himself as a player in ODIs and T20Is. However, Shanaka has proved to be a highly effective utility cricketer for the Lankans.

The 31-year-old is a hard-hitting batter who has played some wonderful cameos to bail Sri Lanka out of trouble over the years. He has a strike rate of over 140 from 173 T20 games. Shanaka would have fit into the category of Impact Player nicely in the IPL, someone who could have been introduced in the second half of the innings.

He is a handy medium-pacer as well. With a base price of ₹50 lakh, it is surprising that Shanaka found no takers at the IPL 2023 auction.

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#3 Wayne Parnell

South African left-arm pacer Wayne Parnell. Pic: Getty Images

An efficient bowling all-rounder, Wayne Parnell is a highly versatile cricketer in the T20 format. The left-arm pacer can bowl in various phases of the game and has the ability to make an impact with his canny variations. He made a comeback for the South African team after the end of the Kolpak era and has made his presence felt.

Parnell is a highly experienced T20 cricketer, having played 245 matches in which he has claimed 247 scalps at an average of 25.87 and an economy rate of 7.81. Apart from being a smart operator with the ball, Parnell can also contribute with the bat. He has five T20 half-centuries to his credit, with a best of 99.

The 33-year-old had set a base price of ₹75 lakh for the IPL 2023 auction but generated no interest among franchises.

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#4 Sandeep Sharma

Sandeep Sharma in action for Punjab Kings in the IPL. Pic: BCCI

Indian medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma is a highly experienced IPL campaigner. Having made his debut in 2013, he has played 104 matches, claiming 114 wickets at an average of 26.33 and an economy rate of 7.77. He was among the wickets in every season from 2014 to 2020, first representing Punjab Kings and then Sunrisers Hyderabad.

In the last couple of seasons, though, his fortunes have dipped. He managed only three wickets in seven matches in 2021 and two scalps in five matches during the 2022 edition. The 29-year-old, however, has displayed good form in domestic cricket recently. He claimed 13 wickets in seven games during the Vijay Hazare Trophy and picked up seven scalps for Chandigarh in the Ranji Trophy clash against Madhya Pradesh.

Considering some of the franchises had a more than decent purse left, at ₹50 lakh, Sharma could have been a good budget buy.

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#5 Saurabh Kumar

Uttar Pradesh left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar. Pic: Getty Images

Uttar Pradesh all-rounder Saurabh Kumar was in the news recently when he claimed 15 wickets for India A in the two-match unofficial Test series against Bangladesh A. Kumar registered figures of 4/23 and 5/63 in the first game and 0/57 and 6/74 in the second. He was even part of the Indian Test squad that beat Bangladesh 2-0 in the two-match series.

Kumar has a terrific first-class record, having claimed 237 wickets in 54 matches. He has also scored 1776 runs with two hundreds with the willow in hand. The utility cricketer has a decent T20 record as well. Kumar has claimed 24 wickets in 33 games at an economy rate of 7.03 and has a strike rate of close to 130 with the bat.

The cricketer was picked up by the Punjab Kings at the IPL 2021 auction. He was earlier part of the Rising Pune Supergiants as well, in 2017. However, he is yet to play a match in the T20 league. Having gone unsold at a base price of ₹20 lakh, Kumar’s wait gets longer.

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