Top 10 Unsold players of IPL 2016 auction

Finally, the day of IPL 2016 auction came and at the end of the day, it made some players milliner and some players remained unsold. The day of the auction was full of excitement as we saw a list of surprising a few were predictable some were absolutely out of the syllabus. While the likes of Shane Watson and Pawan Negi became the highest paid players, some inform players and legends found no buyers. Whether it was by design or accident, there were some unsold players whose exclusion would have certainly arised questions in minds of the fans and here are the unsold players. 1. Usman Khawaja: Usman Khawaja. (© Getty Images) Usman Khawaja remaining unsold was surely the most surprising. He has made runs in all three formats of the game and probably in the form of his life and even yesterday, on the day of the auction he scored his maiden ODI fifty for Australia against New Zealand in 2nd ODI. He scored 345 runs in recently concluded Big Bash League in 4 matches. However, Khawaja could not attract any bids from an IPL team and remained unsold throughout the day. He had set a base price of INR 1 crore. 2. Martin Guptill: Martin Guptill. (© Getty Images) All eyes before the start of the action were on New Zealand’s swash buckling opener Martin Guptill, who ensured he was in the spotlight with runs under his belt at a strike rate more than 150 in the T20I and ODI series against Pakistan. While Guptill might have only played 57 matches for New Zealand in T20 format, he is very agile on the field. Despite very impressive numbers, it proved insufficient and he couldn’t catch the eye of any of IPL franchise. The 29-year-old has every shot in the book but the only possible doubt the teams must have had is his ability to play against quality spinners on Indian tracks. 3. Hashim Amla: Hashim Amla. (© ANESH DEBIKY/AFP/Getty Images) Hashim Amla had been not in the best of forms in the recent ODI and T20I series against India and hasn’t returned to his self even during the ongoing ODI series against England. He isn’t among runs and that might be the main reason why he remained unsold in this year’s IPL auction. However, his experience of playing in Indian condition might have proved vital if he was picked. Amla was presented for two rounds but found no bidders at his base price of 1 crores. 4. Darren Sammy: Darren Sammy. (Photo Source: WICB) Darren Sammy has been a part of two IPL teams in his career the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad. He is also the captain of West Indies T20I team and lead them to World T20 success in 2012. Sammy has been playing T20 cricket all over the world and has the ability to hit the ball out of the park, is a useful bowler and in addition, to that he is a very good fielder but these attributes did not fetch him a buyer; with a base price of INR 50 lakhs, he went unsold. 5. James Pattinson: Australian pacer James Pattinson. (Photo Source: Twitter) James Pattinson the promising Aussies fast bowler who recently made his comeback into the Australian Test side and bowled well against West Indies in Test series failed to make an impact in this year’s IPL auction and remained unsold with a base price of INR 1.5 crores. However, he had been part of Kolkata Knight Riders’ team in IPL but did not play any match. Since there is a pool of young Indian fast bowlers around, franchises haven’t shown much interest in picking overseas fast bowlers and that could be one of the reasons why Pattinson remained unsold. 6. Manoj Tiwary: (Photo Source: BCCI) Manoj Tiwary is an experienced domestic player from Bengal and has also played 79 matches in his IPL career and scored 1324 runs at a strike rate of 113.25. He can bowl leg-spin too if needed. Manoj had been a part of two IPL franchises KKR and DD. With so many good batsmen going around this time in India and his base price of INR 1 crore didn’t give the franchises enough motivation to go for him. 7. Pragyan Ojha: (Photo Source: BCCI) This is the most disappointing fact that we will not see a spinner in this year’s IPL who has taken 89 wickets from 92 matches and a proved match winner. We saw Pawan Negi get big money but a player who has a base price of INR 50 lakhs was still not picked by any team which came in as a surprise. Ever since he changed his action, Ojha is an under a bit of pressure and struggling with wickets, but for the experience, he sports was definitely worth a bid. 8. Michael Hussey: (© Cricket Australia/Getty Images) Although Hussey has retired from international cricket but still he is athletic and can score runs quickly; we have seen him in Big Bash League where he helped his team Sydney Thunder win the tournament and that is the reason why he should have been selected for any team but he remained unsold with a base price of Rs. 2 crores. Mike Hussey has scored 1977 runs from 59 IPL matches at an average of 38.76 which proves that he is a consistent player but with age not on his side and teams looking for explosive out and out explosive batsmen is probably the reason he has not been picked by any team. 9. Mahela Jayawardena: Mahela Jayawardene. (Photo Source: AFP) Mahela Jayawardena called it a day from international cricket in March last year after the ODI World Cup. Since then he has played many T20 tournaments and performed well and recently in Masters Champions League, he scored 124 runs in 60 balls while playing for the Sagittarius Strikers and that made us believe that he can still bat as well as we have seen him do. But with his base price of 1.5 crores and being on the other side of 30s, Mahela remained unsold. 10. Chris Jordan: Chris Jordan. (© Getty Images) Chris Jordan who is an exciting prospect from England and has delivered whenever he has represented England in his career. Jordan bowls quick, can hit the ball long and fields well so he is very much a limited overs specialist but as we saw the case of James Pattinson, teams this time around, were little interested in going for overseas fast bowlers and therefore, Chris Jordan remained unsold with a base price of 1 crore.