The Indian Premier League 2022 saw a mega-auction and the introduction of two new franchises to the world’s richest cricket league.

Only 204 of the 600 players that went under the hammer were sold, while the remaining 396 were unable to reach an agreement with any of the franchisees. The Indian Premier League also made an impression of favouring local talent over showing some major names, which was one of the reasons why just 67 abroad players were sold, with another key factor being the limits of overseas players in the playing XI.

Here are our top three players that were expected to be sold but received no offers from any teams –

1. Suresh Raina – Mr IPL Suresh Raina’s news of being unsold continues to upset his supporters and IPL spectators all over the world, as the game winner and key player of Chennai Super Kings was not even acquired by its previous franchise. He has appeared in 205 games and scored 5,528 runs at a strike rate of 32.51. Raina is only one run behind Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, and Rohit Sharma on the run-getters list, and he has a higher average than Rohit Sharma, as well as a higher strike rate than the three players above him. Raina, at 35 years old, appears to be in fine shape, but his basic price of Rs 2 crore may have frightened some of the clubs.Raina again struggled mightily in the 2021 season, scoring only 160 runs in 12 matches at a pathetic 17.77 average.

2. Steve Smith: Surprisingly, the Australian run-machine got no buyers in the IPL auction 2022. In 2021, he competed in the competition with the Delhi Capitals. Smith scored 152 runs in eight matches, averaging 25.33 and striking out 112.59.

3. Shakib Al Hasan: The explosive Bangladesh star leads the ICC’s ODI all-rounder rankings and is second in the ICC’s T20I rankings. Despite his skill with both the bat and the ball, no team put in an offer for Shakib. His dismal performance in the IPL 2021 may have counted against him. Shakib scored only 47 runs in eight matches for KKR and took only four wickets.