Top three orange cap winners who went unsold in IPL auction later

2. Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson is a stalwart in red-ball cricket, but his numbers in ODIs as well as T20Is are appreciable. In the IPL, the former New Zealand skipper has played 79 games. He has aggregated 2,128 runs at an average of 35.47 and a strike rate of 125.62. Williamson was appointed as the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2018 after regular skipper David Warer was banned from the 11th edition due to the infamous ball-tampering controversy. The Kiwi stalwart led from the front as he finished as the highest run-scorer, with 735 runs from 17 matches at an average of 52.50 and a strike rate of 142.44. He notched up eight fifties during the campaign.

In the last two seasons, he was with the Gujarat Titans. However, he got to play only three games in the two seasons combined and scored just 27 runs. The Tauranga-born went unsold in the IPL 2025 mega-auction. He had a fine outing in the recently-concluded Champions Trophy 2025. The right-handed batter might come in as an injury replacement later in the tournament.