Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been listed for the IPL 2021 auction which is scheduled to take place on February 18 in Chennai. Shakib has been registered at the highest base price of INR 2 crore (approx. US $274,000).
The premier all-rounder, who was unable to play the previous edition of the most protuberant franchisee T20 tournament due to serving a year-long ban imposed by the ICC, is now one of the 11 players to be registered at the highest base price.
Shakib made a return to International cricket with the series against West Indies earlier this year.
He is one of the 11 players to be listed at the highest base price. The other 10 players with highest base price are Kedar Jadhav, Harbhajan Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Liam Plunkett, Jason Roy, Mark Wood and Colin Ingram.
A total of 1097 players registered for the cash-rich T20 league by the deadline of February 4. Out of those, 814 are from India and the other 283 are overseas players. The most number of overseas players, a total of 56 were from West Indies. However, only five Bangladeshi players including Shakib registered for IPL.
Shakib has played in eight editions of IPL so far — six times for Kolkata Knight Riders and twice for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The premier all-rounder scored a total of 746 runs at an average of 21.31 and scalped 59 wickets in the 63 matches played in IPL.
Shakib had a contract with Sunrisers till 2020 but the franchise let him go after his ban.
A total of 61 players can get teams in the auction with a highest number of 22 overseas players among them.