Bangladesh all-rounder and former skipper Shakib Al Hasan was among the 76 players who went unsold at the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction. The 35-year-old has been a regular in the IPL since making his debut in 2011 and was part of IPL-winning team in Kolkata Knight Riders as well.
Shakib’s wife Umme Ahmed Shishir revealed in a Facebook post why her husband went unsold at the auction. Umme took to Facebook to clarify that before everyone jumps the gun, Shakib was approached by a couple of franchises, however, his commitment to the national side for the South Africa series didn’t allow him to be available for the full season and that resulted in him being not in any of the teams’ plans.
“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!” she wrote.
Shakib had modest outings in the last couple of seasons of IPLs – scoring only 56 runs in 11 matches and picking up only 6 wickets. He had also missed the IPL 2020 season.
Umme also added that if Shakib had missed the series due to IPL 2022 he would be labelled as a ‘traitor’ and he didn't want to miss the series against South Africa. “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!” Umme added.
While she mentioned Sri Lanka in her post, but Bangladesh will be heading to South Africa in late March and early April – in the middle of IPL 2022.
After the home series against Afghanistan, the Bangla Tigers will be touring South Africa for three ODIs and two Test matches. While the ODI series gets completed on March 23, the two Test matches are scheduled from March 31-April 4 and April 8-12, which means that the players involved in those games will not be available for the first 15 days of the IPL.
