It was a bit of a surprise for fans that star all-rounder and arguably Bangladesh’s greatest-ever cricketer, Shakib Al Hasan, went unsold at the IPL 2022 auction.
Although Shakib Al Hasan has had injury and discipline issues in the past couple of years, he remains the Bangladesh cricket team’s heart and has been in sizzling form, both with bat and ball, in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League. He is a proven performer in the IPL as well – hence, the fact that not even KKR bid for Shakib took fans aback.
However, there is more to this. The main reason that Shakib wasn’t picked by any IPL franchise at the mega-auction has been revealed by Umme Ahmed Shishir, the cricketer’s wife.
Umme Shishir took to social media to reveal that couple of IPL franchises had contacted Shakib before the auction, asking about his availability. The all-rounder confirmed that he will not be available for the entire IPL 2022 season because he has decided to play the Test series against Sri Lanka.
Cricbuzz reported that the BCB had informed the BCCI that their Shakib will miss the IPL from May 8 to 23 to play two Tests against Sri Lanka, which is part of the ICC Test Championship.
In her Facebook post, Shakib’s wife, Umme Shishir, wrote: “Before you get too excited a Couple of teams contacted him directly ahead of time if he can be available for the full season, but unfortunately he can’t due to Sri Lanka series! This is why he did not get picked which is not a big deal, it is not the end, there’s always next year! In order to be picked he needed to skip SL series, so if he was picked would you have said the same? or would you have made him a traitor by now? Sorry to pour water on your excitement!”
Shakib has been an IPL stalwart and was a key part of KKR’s title wins in 2012 and 2014. He was with SRH in 2018 and 2019, missed the 2020 season due to his ban, and was back with KKR in IPL 2021 when the team reached the final.
The left-hander has picked 63 wickets in 71 games in addition to scoring 793 runs while mostly batting lower down the order.
