IPL 2019: Mohammad Shahzad was deeply missed this season

Mohammad Shahzad has garnered tremendous fame in the recent times, courtesy his ability to play at a rapid pace and dominate the opposition bowlers with ease. In 2018 the Afghanistan wicket-keeper batsman was in phenomenal from with the bat, especially in the domestic T10 tournament, where he scored at a rate in excess of 400 in a few games.

Shahzad has played a huge role in helping Afghanistan cricket take rapid strides at the international stage, along with the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and skipper Asghar Afghan.

Statistics and Records

In 79 ODIs, Shahzad has scored 2562 runs with five centuries, at an average of 34. In 65 T20Is for Afghanistan, the wicket-keeper batsman has 1936 runs, averaging above 31 and striking at a rate of 134.

Shahzad holds the Afghan record for the first century in ODIs along with the first double hundred in a first class game for the country. Among the associate nations, Shahzad has the record for being awarded the Player of the Match on the highest number of occasions.

He played a crucial role in Afghanistan performing beyond expectations at the Asia Cup in 2018 as well as in winning the 2019 World Cup Qualifiers event.

Missing out on an IPL opportunity

Shahzad can consider himself unlucky on missing out on IPL 2019 since he was expected to gather considerable amount of interest among the franchises at the auction.

The burly wicket-keeper came into the auction with a base price of Rs. 50 lakh, and was expected to be picked by some team or the other. But during the auction each team was looking to get all their bases covered with the right mix of Indian and foreign recruits, and by the time Shahzad’s name came up, they had already filled the designated eight foreign spots in their squads. This resulted in Shahzad, along with many other quality foreign cricketers, to miss out.

The diminutive yet powerful batsman from Afghanistan could well have taken the IPL by storm. With his ability to clear any ground, he would have been a handy bet at the top order, especially in the power-plays.

The likes of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi have already raised the stature of Afghanistan cricket in the IPL. Shahzad would have added to that further, and would have been a valuable import in the 2019 edition.

Why the teams didn't target Shahzad

The IPL auction process is such that the order of players is decided according to the collective preference by the franchises. So the players whom the franchises want to target more are put in a pool that would be auctioned earlier compared to the others.

One possible reason for Shahzad being among the least preferred players by the teams could be his fitness. Though he is an explosive batsman and a smart wicket-keeper, Shahzad has often caught people's eye due to his weight issues.

At 90 kg, Shahzad knows he is a tad overweight, and he has been working on his fitness. But at the same time he has been pretty vocal about not compromising much on his diet - especially since he can already hit mammoth sixes.

Come IPL 2020, a possibly leaner Shahzad could become the cynosure of world cricket.

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