Sri Lankan skipper, Dasun Shanaka is witnessing a purple patch in his career, especially in the shortest format of the game. He scored stormy innings of 22-ball 56 and picked a couple of wickets to be adjudged Player of the Match in the second T20I against hosts India. His all-around performance helped the Islanders to level the series ahead of the third and final T20I on Saturday.

In the IPL 2023 auction in December, where all-rounders were in high demand and the likes of Sam Curran, Cameron Green and Ben Stokes earned millions, surprisingly Shanaka (base price ₹50 lacs) failed to find a buyer.

Even though there were no buyers for him for the T20 extravaganza, he is currently the highest run-scorer in the three-match T20I series against India. In the first couple of games, the 31-year-old has already amassed 101 runs at an incredible strike rate of 206.12.

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Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir gave his opinions on the chances of Shanaka’s in the IPL auction if it were to happen today. In an interaction on Star Sports, he said that the Sri Lanka all-rounder would have managed to attract a lot of bidders if the ongoing T20I series took place before or during the auctions.

Describing the same, Gautam Gambhir said, “I won’t have money, he would be that expensive, the way he has batted. That is what the auction is all about. Imagine if this series had happened just before the auction, some of the franchises would probably not have had the money to buy him.”

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Meanwhile, under the captaincy of Dasun Shanaka, Sri Lanka will hope to clinch the series when they will be locking horns with each other in a series decider on Saturday. After the conclusion of T20Is, the visitors will play a three-match ODI series starting Tuesday, January 10.