Major Cricket Stars Who Failed to Find a Franchise in the IPL 2026 Player Auction

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The IPL 2026 auction in Abu Dhabi featured major surprises as several legendary overseas names found no bidders. High-profile New Zealand opener Devon Conway, with a base price of Rs. 2 crore, was unexpectedly sidelined. Despite his stellar record for Chennai Super Kings, teams chose to overlook him this time. Similarly, the explosive Australian youngster Jake Fraser-McGurk saw no paddles raised for his Rs. 2 crore valuation.

Notable International Stars Left Without a Team

Along with Conway and Fraser-McGurk, England wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow and Black Caps’ all-rounder Daryl Mitchell could not find any taker either. The trend followed with spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Maheesh Theekshana, both of whom had excellent T20 World Cup records, remaining unsold. Experienced players like these are expected to be in demand, but their exclusion could be a part of financial and planning considerations regarding youngsters’ introduction in the league.

Indian Capped and Uncapped Players in the Unsold Category

The domestic category at the auction presented a bit of disappointment as young talent got left behind. Notable capped all-rounder Deepak Hooda, who is valued at Rs. 75 lakh, went unsold.

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Additionally, wicketkeeper and batter KS Bharat also failed to occupy the spot even at the base price. In the uncapped segment, many talented players were ignored in the first couple of rounds. Also, Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, and Yash Dhull went unsold, which surprised many cricket fans as their past experience in the format was valuable.

Even bowlers like Akash Madhwal and Simarjeet Singh, who had a significant impact on their previous seasons, were also put on the unsold list. Though some players, such as Prithvi Shaw, got a team tag in later rounds, a considerable number of domestic cricketers started without a team for the 2026 season. Indian batsmen Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan, as well as New Zealand opening batsman Devon Conway, went unsold in the initial rounds.

In brief, current teams are obsessed with numbers such as strike rate against different kinds of bowlers. As a result, traditional solid domestic cricketers are left out. The present IPL is also witnessing an increasing trend of a disposable class of talent, where the value of uncapped players reduces drastically after just one average season, making the domestic circuit more volatile than ever before.

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