IPL Auction 2018: Unsold XI
The feeling of rejection is something every single living being in this universe has experienced. While epistemologists out there implore us to 'take destiny into our own hands', it is not always that easily accomplished, especially in the world of sport, where every inch, every second counts.
In cricket, or more specifically the IPL, every year, under the raised mallet of Richard Madley lies the fate of hundreds of cricketers, their luck changing with every bid that the franchise owners raise. From the sons of auto rickshaw-wallahs to ex-security guards, fortunes have seldom changed as drastically as in the IPL auctions.
With the IPL poised to enter its 11th season, the auction played a massive role in determining how the teams line up for the marquee event. As many as 159 players found takers, but there were plenty that were left by the wayside, including the likes of Hashim Amla, Moises Henriques and Ishant Sharma who do not feature on this list.
On that note, here is a team comprising 11 of the best unsold players from the 2018 IPL auction.
Openers
T20 cricket is all about going hard at the start and getting off to a flier, and there is no one who has done that more often in the past than Martin Guptill, which makes his presence on this list all the more surprising.
Guptill averages 33 in T20s and strikes at 127, handy numbers for an opener. He is one of the cleanest hitters of the ball and what makes his non-selection even more head-scratching is that he was listed at a base price of just INR 75 lakh. He is also one of a select few batsmen with a T20I century to his name.
Alex Hales was one of numerous English players who failed to find a suitor in the IPL auction. Hales has fast made a name for himself as one of the leading T20 batsmen in the world, acting as a mercenary of sorts in the shortest format of the game when he is not bludgeoning international bowlers to all corners of the ground in English colors.
Hales has never featured in the IPL before, but has turned out for the likes of the Adelaide Strikers, Duronto Rajshahi, and other T20 franchises across the globe. Hales averages just under 30 and strikes at over 140, exactly what is needed in a top-order batsman.
The only thing that may have counted against him though is his recent form for England, having struggled for consistency against the Australians Down Under, and the fact that England players haven't been available for an entire season of the IPL in the past, what with international and county commitments getting in the way. A base price of INR 1 crore would not have helped either.