5 big international stars who have been signed as non-auctioned IPL players

In a way, the IPL auctions are more entertaining than the tournament itself. When the auctioneer auctions a player, the sheer thrill among the fans to know where the said player will end up, becomes blatantly apparent when one scours the social media.

Also, the tug-of-war between franchises feels like a game itself as some of the best bidding wars in the history of mankind took place in the IPL auction room. However, not all the big names find clubs in that room as some really high-profile players were left unsold in every IPL auction.

Some of these unsold players played in IPL after being internally drafted by team as a replacement for their injured players. And some of these internal signings gave fans hope because of their brilliant track record in the game.

And here are 5 such brilliant non-auctioned foreign players that were signed after the tournament began…

[Note: the names in this article is based on their ability and not how they actually did in the IPL.]

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Chris Jordan

One of the newest addition in the IPL, Chris Jordan was drafted in by Royal Challengers Bangalore as a replacement for the injured Mitchell Starc in 2016. RCB took a huge risk when they opted to stick with Mitchell Starc and monitor how his injury heals instead of acquiring a replacement.

In the end, after playing more than half of the tournament, they came to their senses and finally signed the replacement that they should have, a long time ago.

It might be a little too late for Virat Kohli’s men, but it doesn’t erase the fact that Chris Jordan is one of the craftiest pacers in the game. His ability to bowl accurate yorkers gives his team a great bowler to have in the death overs—something we witnessed in the World T20 a couple of months ago.

He might have had a bad debut with his new club, but RCB could yet restore some pride with him on board.

Usman Khawaja

Khawaja might have played only two games in the IPL, but he has already shown that not picking him up in the auctions was one of the weirdest decisions made by the franchises.

As almost every foreign player of Rising Pune Super Giants find themselves under the inspection of doctors, Dhoni’s team was forced to make signings—making Usman Khawaja an RPSG player in the process.

In his first two games with his new club, he has already depicted the damage he can do. He might have got 4 lives in his first game, but he started with all-guns-blazing against Royal Challengers Bangalore, scoring 16 runs in only 6 balls.

A run out was required to see the back of him and one can only imagine what damage he could have done had the mix-up not happened.

His stats speak for themselves. With an average of 33.95 in T20 and a strike-rate of 124.54, he has all it takes to become a key player for Dhoni. The question, however, remains: is it a little too late?

Hashim Amla

His numbers are as follows: 31.35 average and 125.95 strike-rate with 2446 runs under his name in T20s. If that alone doesn’t suffice as a testament to his ability, I don’t know what else will.

Given the impressive number of opening batsmen in the IPL that were already featuring, it was only natural to see Amla getting overlooked in the auctions. However, an overwhelming amount of injuries in this edition’s IPL has given one of the greatest batsmen of our era a chance to feature in the most star-studded tournament of this time.

He was named in the starting XI of Punjab’s team in 2016--whose batting has been a travesty, to say the least. He is certainly going to have as much impact—if not more—as Shaun Marsh, the injured player he replaced, did.

Martin Guptill

Another player who got ignored simply because there were too many opening batsmen in the tournament. It’s not like he isn’t getting disregarded anymore as Mumbai are yet to give him a proper chance, playing him in just one game after drafting him in for the injured Lendl Simmons.

His stats are exemplary and warrant respect from fans and players alike. In T20s, he has scored 4686 runs at an average of 35.23 while batting with a strike rate of 128.45 in the process. This is a man who scored a double hundred in ODIs and was one of the most important players for New Zealand in their brilliant run in the T20 World Cup.

He was picked up by Kings XI Punjab in 2017. But what we can certainly say is that he is a top player and among the very best in the world.

Chris Gayle

And the ultimate world class player to not be signed by his team in an auction is none other than the Universe Boss Chris Gayle himself. After being left out by the revamped Kolkata Knight Riders, Chris Gayle—who was going through a very bad patch of form back then—was left unsold in the 2011 IPL auction.

However, an injury to Dirk Nannes meant that he was drafted in as a replacement by Royal Challengers Bangalore. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ironically, 5 years later at the time of writing this article, Chris Gayle finds himself warming the bench for RCB after a dismal IPL 2016. However, that doesn’t change the fact that he has been RCB’s most lethal batsman in the past years.

His best innings was a godly 175 runs blast against Pune that will forever be etched in the hearts of fans. For some, he is the greatest player ever in the history of T20s and his 8847 runs in only 242 innings at an average of 42.53 and a strike-rate of 149.89, works as a testament to that claim.