204 players managed to find bidders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega-auction and they accounted for a sum of ₹551.70 crores in 2 days of the event. However, some of the stalwarts of the game like Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, and Steve Smith, went unsold in the mega-auction for the upcoming 15th edition of the IPL. It looks like, Mr. IPL Suresh Raina’s storied IPL career has come to an end as none of the franchises picked him even during the final accelerated round on Day 2 of the mega auction.

Suresh Raina has amassed 5528 runs in 204 IPL matches and he is still the 4th highest run-getter in the list with only Virat Kohli (6283), Shikhar Dhawan (5784), and Rohit Sharma (5611) in front of him. However, he retired from international cricket in 2020, did not play competitive cricket ahead of the mega auction with his last competitive appearance coming in IPL 2021.

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The decline of Raina’s stocks in the IPL was evident when he was not picked in the playing XI of CSK towards the end of the last season. Raina placed his base price at ₹2 crores and despite some franchises were not having many Indian batters, no one went for him over the 2 days of the mega auction.

Meanwhile, senior pacer, Ishant Sharma who has played more than 100 Test matches for India, found no bidders. It remains to be seen if Ishant will ever be able to return to the IPL. The Delhi pacer has scalped 73 wickets from 93 games after having played 13 of the last 14 seasons.

Meanwhile, Cheteshwar Pujara also went unsold in the IPL 2022 mega auction. He returned to the IPL last year with Chennai Super Kings bidding for him with ₹50 lakhs. Other notable big-name Indian players which went unsold are, Piyush Chawla, Amit Mishra, Dhawal Kulkarni, and Saurabh Tiwary.

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Meanwhile, there were plenty of surprises when it came to the overseas contingent. Australia’s Test deputy skipper, Steve Smith did not get a contract while England’s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan failed to find a buyer despite leading Kolkata Knight Riders to the final last season.