IPL 10 Auction: Gautam Gambhir highlights prime reason behind Ishant Sharma's failure to bag deal

New Delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir highlighted what would be the prime reason behind Ishant Sharma's failure to land an IPL contract for the 2017 season.

The lanky Indian seamer had a reality check today as he went unsold in the auction and as per Gambhir and many cricket pundits, his decision of selecting a base price of Rs. 2 crore was the prime reason behind today's hard truth.

READ: IPL 2017 Auction - As it happened...

As soon the base prices of players for the auction of IPL 2017 were made public, cricket fans were left amazed seeing Ishant Sharma's name at the top alongside the likes of Ben Stokes, Mitchell Johnson, Eoin Morgan, etc.

During the mid-auction break, the KKR captain was seen talking to Gaurav Kapoor on Sony Six when he highlighted the issue of Ishant's base price.

The left-hander said, “I was surprised to see Ishant Sharma’s base price. I think it was too high.”

Gautam also backed his statement with a valid logic that he will bowl only 4 overs in the game but when compared to someone like Ben Stokes (who also had a Rs. 2 crore base price), the latter can ball, bat and field equally well. Spending so much for those 4 overs in IPL is not a clever idea.

An IPL franchise's top boss was also quoted saying by PTI on Ishant's matter, “Ishant Sharma shouldn’t have kept his base price at INR 2 crores. Firstly, he doesn’t play for India in T20s and (is) not considered a white ball bowler. He is only playing Test cricket. Ideally, he should have shed his ego and kept his base price in the range of INR 30 lakhs. Varun Aaron gained just because of that even though Ishant probably has more quality.”

Irfan Pathan, with a base price of Rs. 50 lakh, was another experienced Indian player who failed to bag a contract.