IPL auction: 3 famous IPL players you might not know once went unsold

The IPL auction for the 2020 edition of the league will take place in Kolkata later this month. A maximum of 73 players will get IPL contracts, as there are only 73 vacant slots in the squads of the eight teams taking part in the auction.

A number of players go unsold in the IPL auction every year. Some of them are actually good players, but the franchises don’t show any interest in them because they are not the biggest of stars at the international level.

The IPL franchises generally keep an eye on the foreign players who are performing well in international cricket. Rarely does a franchise pick a foreign player out of the box based on his performance in the domestic circuit.

It has been seen over the years that some of the players who were once unsold in the IPL auction later went on to make a name for themselves, both in international cricket as well as in the IPL. Here are three famous IPL players who you probably didn’t know once went unsold.

#3 Steve Smith

Former Australian captain Steve Smith, who is one of the best batsmen in the world at the moment across all formats of the game, found no bidders in the IPL auction of 2012.

Smith, however, got to play the tournament later that season as his compatriot Mitchell Marsh got injured and Pune Warriors India wanted a replacement.

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Although Smith couldn’t do much for the Pune Warriors India, he had a great time with another Pune franchise - the Rising Pune Supergiant. Smith captained RPS to the final of the IPL in 2017 where they lost the final by just one run.

Aside from his fantastic captaincy, Smith was also the leading run-scorer for RPS as he slammed 472 runs in 15 games at an average close to 40.

The 30-year old is currently the captain of the Rajasthan Royals. He has scored over 2000 runs in the IPL including one century, which came against against Gujarat Lions in the 2016 edition.