Bangladesh premier all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for Rs 3.2 crore following a bidding war with Punjab Kings, who changed their name from Kings XI Punjab, during the IPL-2021 auction currently ongoing in Chennai today.
Shakib’s name came up in the second set of the auction. And KKR made the opening bid for Shakib, who was listed at the highest base price of INR 2 crore. Punjab Kings then joined in on the bidding, raising his price to 2.2 crore. KKR pushed the bid to 2.4 crore almost immediately after that and Punjab Kings then further raised his price to 2.6 crore following an intense discussion at their table.
After a few sets of bids between the two sides, Shakib was sold to KKR for 3.2 crore.
The premier all-rounder, who missed out on playing in the previous edition of the most prominent franchisee T20 tournament due to serving a year-long ban imposed by the ICC, was one of the 11 players to be listed at the highest base price.
Shakib has played in eight editions of IPL so far — six times for Kolkata Knight Riders and twice for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Shakib scored a total of 746 runs at an average of 21.31 and scalped 59 wickets in the 63 matches played in IPL. Shakib had a contract with Sunrisers till 2020 but the franchise let him go after his ban.
However, there are only 61 slots available with all the eight franchises combined and a highest number of 22 foreign players can get teams.
Apart from Shakib, four other Bangladeshi players — pacer Mustafizur Rahman, Mahmudullah Riyad, all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin and Mushfiqur Rahim — have listed themselves in the auction. Mushfiqur was the last one to have himself registered for the auction.
