IPL: 5 T20 legends who have gone unsold in an auction

#2 Andre Russell (2011)

Andre Russell is in the MVP conversation in every IPL season

If Andre Russell were to enter an IPL auction now, he'd probably command the highest price tag. Blessed with brute power, frightening pace, and incredible athleticism, the West Indian is one of the greatest T20 players of all time, but didn't find any suitors in the 2011 IPL auction.

Granted, he wasn't a familiar face then, but he was on the fringes of the national team and would make his ODI and T20I debuts in the same year. Russell finally found a team in the 2012 IPL auction, but the Delhi Daredevils didn't back the then-24-year-old to perform for them.

Russell's move to KKR in the 2014 edition of the IPL truly unleashed him on the world's biggest T20 stage, and he has since scored 1,342 runs at an average of 35.32 and strike rate of 188.75.

Due to differences with the board, the 32-year-old has played only 49 T20Is for West Indies but is still one of the greatest players to have graced the 20-over format.

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#1 Chris Gayle (2011)

Chris Gayle is perhaps the greatest T20 cricketer of all time

Christopher Henry Gayle went unsold in the 2011 IPL auction - let that sink in. The marauding West Indian was on the back of a few indifferent seasons with KKR, but was a regular in all three formats in international cricket (although he was dropped a few times) and was one of the most feared batsmen in the world.

After RCB lost Dirk Nannes due to injury, they signed Gayle in what was both a stroke of luck and a shrewd decision. And the rest, as they say, is history. In 85 games for the Karnataka outfit, the opener scored 3,163 runs, along with the highest-ever T20 score of 175* against PWI in 2013.

The Universe Boss has since played for Kings XI Punjab as well, and certainly has a claim to be perhaps the greatest T20 player of all time.

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