IPL 2024: Picked By 'mistake' In Auction Shashank Singh Stars For PBKS With 8-ball Cameo

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: At the end of the auction for the Indian Premier League's 2024 edition in December 2023, Punjab Kings were left red-faced when they got confused over the name of a player and reportedly picked the wrong one. They were prevented by the auctioneer from changing the player as the hammer had come down on the sale.

It was claimed that the Punjab Kings management had bought the wrong Shashank Singh for Rs 20 lakh, picking up a 32-year-old who plays for Chhattisgarh, instead of the 19-year-old batter they had originally planned to rope in.

On Monday, the 'unwanted' Shashank Singh showed the franchise that mistake would not cost them a lot as he smashed an 8-ball unbeaten 21 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a high-octane clash at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Shashank flicked and hammered English pacer Alzarri Joseph for a brace of sixes in the final over, before slashing a four over short third man to take 20 runs off the last over and helped Punjab reach 176/6 in their 20 overs.

The Punjab Kings (PBKS) had reportedly made a significant blunder during the auction on December 20 by purchasing the 'wrong player'. By the time they realised the mistake, the bid had already been completed and the auctioneer denied the reversal.

The focal point of this chaos was the uncapped Indian player, Shashank Singh, whom PBKS mistakenly bought at a base price of Rs 20 lakh after the team seemingly mixed up the name of the player during the auction held in Dubai.

During the accelerated round, the auctioneer Mallika Sagar announced and called out the name of 32-year-old Shashank, who represents Chhattisgarh in domestic cricket. Shashank has played 55 T20 games, amassing 724 runs at a strike rate of 135.83 while taking 15 wickets. He had previously been part of the Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad squads in IPL and has represented Mumbai and Puducherry besides Chhattisgarh at the domestic level.

Though Punjab Kings later clarified that the uncapped batting all-rounder, who remained unsold in the previous year's auction after being released by Sunrisers Hyderabad, was always on their target list and it was not an error on their part, not everyone was convinced.

On Monday, the 32-year-old Shashank Singh right-handed batter, who can bowl medium pace and off-break, did not leave any doubts about his utility as he played a crucial cameo. There was no 'mistake' about his innings against RCB.