Sandeep Sharma, the Punjab medium pacer, who is the only Indian bowler to have scalped the prized wicket of Virat Kohli in IPL history, expresses his disappointment after failing to find any buyer in the TATA IPL 2023 auction. Sandeep holds the IPL record of scalping Virat Kohli on 7 occasions, yet, he remained unsold at the recently concluded IPL mini-auction. Not only in IPL, but he also has a brilliant record in domestic cricket as well. Sandeep Sharma was part of the Punjab Kings team during IPL 2022.
Speaking to Cricket.com, Sandeep said “I am surprised and disappointed at the same time. Till last year, I performed to the best of my abilities for whichever team I represented. I hoped that at least a couple of teams will bid for me. I never thought that I would go unsold in this year’s IPL auction. My performance in both Ranji Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was good. I don’t even know where I went wrong to go unsold in the IPL auction.”
Sandeep Sharma first burst into the scenes when he scalped 4 wickets in the final of the U19 world cup in Australia against the host. He played an instrumental role in helping India clinch the U19 world cup in 2012. Fast forward to 2013, he was picked up by the Punjab team (Kings XI Punjab then) in IPL. Later, he remained associated with the Sunrisers Hyderabad team for several years.
Sandeep is one of those few Indian bowlers who has over 100 wickets in the Indian Premier League. In 104 IPL games, he has picked up 114 wickets at an impressive average of 26.33. He has been an integral part of the bowling attack of whichever team he represented. However, in IPL 2020 and 2021, he got to play a total of 12 matches. In these seasons, his total wicket tally was 5.
