IPL 2019: 3 lesser-known overseas spinners who'll rule the auction

As far as the Indian Premier League (IPL) is concerned, the excitement doesn’t die down and any development surrounding the T20 tournament attracts the limelight. A number of prominent names will go under the hammer and for whom the franchises will go all guns blazing in the auction. Nevertheless, it has also been seen that many lesser-known players have gone on to attract massive bids.

It’s something which has taken many by surprise. Even this edition’s auction can also throw a few surprises. The pitches in India provide assistance to the spinners, and a number of teams will try and strengthen the spin attack. A few unknown faces in the spin department may also be up for grabs and teams may shell out a significant amount of money for them. We take a look at three of them.

Chris Green

The 25-year-old off-break bowler doesn’t have a whole lot of experience in T20 cricket, having played only 38 matches in his career. The youngster has picked up 32 wickets in those contests but has bowled at a stupendous economy rate of 6.80. He doesn’t turn the leather much but can hit the right-channels to keep a lid on the batsman. The tweaker can also bowl inside the fielding restrictions.

He made his debut in the 2014-15 edition of the Big Bash League for Sydney Thunder. He also went to ply his trade for Guyana Amazon Warriors in this year’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and picked up 10 wickets in 11 matches at an economy of 6.27. He is currently playing for Northern Warriors in the T10 League in Sharjah and has turned out to be a tough customer to deal with for the batsmen.

Zahir Khan

The Chinaman bowler was a part of last year’s auction and was picked by Rajasthan Royals (RR) at INR 60 lakhs from a base price of INR 20 lakhs. Unfortunately, the left-armer missed the entire season due to an injury. Albeit the spinner from Afghanistan hasn’t played much cricket in the 20-overs format, but his 34 wickets from the 24 matches show that he has the potential to take wickets at regular intervals.

Batsmen also find it tumultuous to score runs off his bowling and the same is evident from his T20 economy rate of 7.17. He represented the Nangarhar Leopards in the inaugural Afghanistan Premier League (APL) and went on to pick up 10 wickets in nine matches at an economy of seven. Earlier this year in January-February, Khan also played for Afghanistan in the U19 World Cup in New Zealand.

Fawad Ahmed

The Pakistan-born Australian spinner has had a stupendous time of late in the shortest format. Though age is catching up with him, his effectiveness with the leather in hand hasn’t diminished by any stretch of the imagination. The leg-spinner has played 52 T20s thus far and has racked up 57 wickets with an economy rate of 6.78, which is undoubtedly commendable in a generation of slam-bang cricket.

The 36-year-old turned out to be the leading wicket-taker in this year’s CPL with 22 wickets from 13 matches, representing Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR), last season’s champion. The Marghuz-born bowler recently played a couple of matches for Shane Watson-captained Sindhis in this year’s T10 League. Moreover, he also has donned the national colours in three ODIs and a couple of T20Is.

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