5 Players who got rejected from Indian T20 League but stunned everyone with their recent performances

The mini-auction for the Indian T20 League got done and dusted in Kochi on the 23^rd of December last year. A total of 405 registered players’ fortune was tested under the hammer. Out of those, the star young England all-rounder Sam Curran ended up being the most-expensive bid in the history of the tournament so far since 2008. He was picked by Punjab for a mammoth amount of INR 18.5 crores.

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Apart from Curran, another World Cup-winner star all-rounder Ben Stokes was roped in by the four-time champions Chennai for an amount of 16.50 crores. But there were also some talents that couldn’t make it to the 16^th edition of the Indian T20 League. Although a few of these rejected players have performed brilliantly in international cricket of late and made the teams realize that they may have done a mistake by ignoring the name of these players.

With said that, here we’ll have a look at five players who went unsold, or teams not considered them during the mini-auction for the 2023 edition of the cash-rich Indian T20 tournament. But their recent performances have left everyone to think once Indian T20 League teams had missed some big potential performers in the tournament.

Michael Bracewell

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The 31-year-old New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Michael Bracewell recently attracted the eyeballs of the cricketing fraternity with his swashbuckling century-knock against India in the first of the three-match ODI series between India and New Zealand. Apart from that, he has also delivered some vital performances with the ball as well.

Notably, Bracewell has scored 198 runs in his last four ODI appearances for the Blackcaps. In these matches, he has scored runs with a very decent average of 49.50 including the recent century against India. But unfortunately, he went unsold during the mini-auction for Indian T20 League, none of the franchises counted on him even for INR 1 crore.

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Dasun Shanaka

Sri Lanka skipper and star all-rounder Dasun Shanaka led his team by establishing examples with his own performances both with the bat and the ball. In the recently concluded three-match ODI series against India, Shanaka scored a brilliant century in the first of the three-match ODI series. Although the Shanaka’s knock of 108 runs went in vain as India won the match by 67 runs.

Besides that, he also played a crucial role in eliminating the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team from the Asia Cup 2022 last year. Shanaka played a crucial knock of 33 runs off just 18 balls which took the match away from the hosts. But still, the Sri Lankan captain is waiting for a call from the Indian T20 League as he hasn’t been signed by any franchise as of now.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz

Who can forget the name of star Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz who stood as a big difference between the series win and India? Miraz played a crucial role in the 2-1 victory of the hosts in the three-match ODIs series against the men in blue.

The 25-year-old played a very vital unbeaten knock of 38 runs in the first ODI followed by a stunning century in the second ODI series. Bangladesh clinched victory in both fixtures and took an unassailable lead in the series against Rohit Sharma & co. Even after these kinds of brilliant outings, Mehidy Hasan Miraz couldn’t earn a call-up from either of the Indian T20 League franchise.

Tom Latham

The veteran New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter and currently the stand-in skipper of the team in the ongoing three-match ODI series, Tom Latham has produced a lot of crucial knocks of late. The Canterbury guy has had brilliant batting numbers against the men in blue and that too in Indian conditions.

He also showcased his amazing batting skills last year in 2022 when team India toured New Zealand. Latham smashed an amazing century of 145 runs off 104 balls to cross the finishing line for his team and they eventually won the series by 1-0. But the Indian T20 League teams haven’t acknowledged the performances from Tom Latham much worthy so far.

Wayne Parnell

Wayne Parnell was one of the major reasons for the Indian team’s first defeat in the 20-20 World Cup. The 33-year-old veteran left-armer scalped 3 wickets in the WC match against India by conceding only 15 runs in his quota of four overs with one maiden over to his name.

Speaking of his appearances in the Indian T20 League, Parnell hasn’t appeared in this prestigious franchise T20 tournament since 2015. From his debut in 2011 to 2015, the Cape Province pacer featured in 26 Indian T20 League matches and scalped 26 wickets.

But no team has roped in Parnell since he played his last match in the tournament almost nine years back in the year 2014.