Bangladesh premier all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and pacer Mustafizur Rahman have been sold for big money in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Chennai on Thursday.
Shakib, who had a base price of INR 2 crore returned to his former side Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping INR 3.3 crore. After a pale stint with Mumbai Indians, Mustafizur joined Rajasthan Royals for his base prize of INR 1 crore, as no other franchise teams showed interest in him.
To secure Shakib’s services, Punjab Kings, who were previously known as Kings XI Punjab gave tough fight to KKR. However, in the end, KKR emerged victorious in adding Shakib to their ranks. Shakib’s name popped up in the second set of the auction. KKR initially made the opening bid for him. Then Punjab Kings then joined the bidding war for Shakib, which raised his price to 2.2 crore. KKR then propelled the bid to 2.4 crore instantly. Punjab Kings then further raised his price to 2.6 crore followed by an intense discussion at their table.
It was like a tug of war going on between both the sides for Shakib. Then, after some more sets of bids between them, Shakib was finally sold to KKR for 3.2 crore.
Shakib, missed out on playing in the previous edition of the most prominent franchisee T20 tournament due to serving a year-long ban ICC ban. Shakib has so far played in eight editions of the tourney. He played six times for KKR and twice for Sunrisers Hyderabad and won the IPL title once with KKR.
Shakib scored a total of 746 runs at an average of 21.31 and bagged 59 wickets in the 63 matches played in IPL. Meanwhile, Mustafiz has earlier played for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians and has won the IPL title with the Hyderabad franchise.
