IPL 2017 Auction: Gautam Gambhir surprised with Ishant Sharma's 'too high' base price

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New Delhi, Feb 21: Senior India pacer Ishant Sharma suffered huge setback after being ignored by all eight franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 auction on Monday (Feb 20).

The tall Delhi pacer, perhaps, suffered for a huge base price of Rs 2 crore as he went unsold during both the rounds.

During the mid-auction break at Sony Six, the Kolkata Knight Riders' skipper Gautam Gambhir too highlighted the issue of Ishant's base price.

"I was surprised to see Ishant Sharma's base price. I think it was too high," Gambhir said.

Supporting his statement with a logic that Ishant will have to bowl only 4 overs per game but when compared to someone like Ben Stokes (who had a base price of Rs 2 crore) he could contribute with bat, ball and also in the field.

Gambhir opined spending so much Ishant wasn't a good idea.

An IPL team top boss, who was at the auction table told PTI, "Ishant Sharma shouldn't have kept his base price at Rs 2 crore. Firstly, he doesn't play for India in T20s and not considered a white ball bowler. He is only playing Test cricket. Ideally, he should have shed his ego and kept his base price in the range of Rs 30 lakh. Varun Aaron gained just because of that even though Ishant probably has more quality."

Ishant wasn't the only senior cricketer who found no takers, even veteran pacer Irfan Pathan too failed to impress any franchise.

OneIndia News