new delhi: Shashank Singh reacted gracefully after Punjab Kings put out a clarification to bring an end to all the speculations about the franchise not wanting to pick the cricketer at the IPL 2023 auction. It was an eventful day for Shashank at the mini auction. On a day Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Daryl Mitchell and Harshal Patel minted crores, Shashank grabbed his share spotlight despite being sold for his base price of 20 lakh. His price was obviously not the reason behind the attention. It was what transpired immediately after he was bought by PBKS. There were Shashank Singhs listed in the IPL 2024 auction. The one PBKS bought, a 32 year old hard hitting middle order from Chattisgarh and another a 19 year old rookie from Bengal who hasn t even played first class cricket. It was the latter who came up first in the accelerated part of the auction on Tuesday and went unsold. The experienced batter, who was a part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad last year, came up about three minutes later. PBKS were the only franchise to place a bid. The player was sold to them after auctioneer Mallika Sagar s hammer went down.
The drama, however, had just begun. As the auctioneer moved the next player Tanay Thyagrajan there was a lot of action happening at the PBKS table. Co owners Ness Wadia and Preity Zinta were seen raising their hand to attract the attention of the auctioneer. From the audio of Sagar, it was evident that PBKS wanted to take the bid back. But the auctioneer explained that the hammer had come down and they had to accept the player into their roster. In a statement released on Wednesday, PBKS said that the Chhattisgarh all rounder was always on our target list and the confusion was due to two players of the same name being on the list. Official Update Punjab Kings would like to clarify that Shashank Singh was always on our target list. The confusion was due to 2 players of the same name being on the list. We are delighted to have him on board and see him contribute to our success, tweeted PBKS. Later, Shashank, brought by PBKS thanked the franchise, replying to their statement, It s All Cool ... Thank you for Trusting on me .
Shashank has scored 724 runs in 55 T20s at an average of 20.11 and a strike rate of over 135, with five fifties to his name. He also has 15 wickets in the format. He has a strong List A record, scoring 986 runs in 30 matches at an average of 41.08, with two centuries and three fifties in 27 innings and taking 33 wickets. It was overall a mixed outing for PBKS at the auction table. they filled their 25 player quota by making solid buys in England all rounder Chris Woakes 4.2 crores , South African batter Rilee Rossouw eight crores and Indian pacer Harshal Patel 11.75 crores . But they missed out on a reliable Indian middle order batter.
