Gautam Gambhir surprised with the base price of Ishant Sharma in the IPL auction

After the end of a high-voltage IPL auction at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Bengaluru, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir made a pretty bold revelation on his one-time teammate Ishant Sharma’s base price of Rs.2 crore for the 2017 IPL auctions. The lanky fast bowler was ignored by all the eight franchises in the auction and his high base price might be the biggest reason behind huis omission.

While talking to Gaurav Kapoor in the studio during the lunch break, Gambhir said that Ishant Sharma’s base price of Rs.2 crore was too high considering that he can only bowl 4 overs for his team whereas a guy like Ben Stokes can contribute to the team’s cause in all three departments of the game. He also revealed that the reason behind some of the good T20 players remaining unsold in the auction was due to the dynamics and high base prices of some of the players.

“I was surprised to see Ishant Sharma’s base price. I think it was too high,” Gambhir said during his interaction with Gaurav Kapoor in the lunch break. His logic was pretty sensible considering the variety of players in the current generation who can contribute to the team’s cause in all three departments of the game.

Despite being a veteran in the international circuit, Ishant Sharma has failed to realise his potential on a consistent basis and his average international record in both Test and limited overs cricket proves that he hasn’t been consistent enough at the highest level. The 6 ft 4-inch fast bowler has appeared in 74 Tests and 80 ODI’s for India bagging 215 and 115 wickets in the process.

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Gautam Gambhir, on the other hand, has arguably been the most inspirational captains KKR has seen in their history of IPL. The southpaw captained his franchise to two IPL titles in 2013 and 2015. He has been a prolific run-scorer for the franchise as well and remains an integral part of the team in the upcoming IPL.