A day after Punjab Kings were trolled online over a major gaffe in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 auction over Shashank Singh controversy, the Shikhar Dhawan led side has now cleared the air. In a statement, the franchise, said “Punjab Kings would like to clarify that Shashank Singh was always on our target list. The confusion was due to 2 players of the same name being on the list. We are delighted to have him on board and see him contribute to our success,” Punjab Kings said. Punjab Kings made an early advance to sign the uncapped player at the IPL 2024 auction. It looked like Shashank had PBKS' attention when his name was called by auctioneer Mallika Sagar in the accelerated round of the mini-auction.
When Mallika brought down the hammer and completed the bidding process of the Chattisgarh cricketer, PBKS owners Ness Wadia and Preity Zinta tried informing the auctioneer that they confused the player with another cricketer. "It was a wrong name? You don't want the player?" Mallika asked. "We are talking about Shashank Singh. But the hammer has come down. Player No. 236 and 237 both went to you," she added before Wadia told the auctioneer that they wanted to bid for another player."I think the hammer has come down for 237 (Shashank) as well," said Mallika, who had earlier given a "fair warning" to all teams before closing the bidding. Interestingly, there were two players named Shashank Singh at the IPL 2024 auction. The other Shashank is a 19-year-old youngster yet to ply his trade in first-class cricket. Both players had the same base price of INR 20 lakh for the IPL auction. Punjab had a purse of INR 29.1 Cr before the auction began, and they spent close to 20 Cr on Harshal Patel (INR 11.75 crore), and Rilee Rossouw (INR 8 crore).Their most expensive buy was Indian pacer Harshal Patel, whom they bought for Rs 11.75 crore. They also bought Rilee Rossouw and Chris Woakes, who can add good depth to their batting.
Punjab Kings players retained in the IPL 2024:
Arshdeep Singh, Atharva Taide, Harpreet Brar, Harpreet Bhatia, Jitesh Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Kagiso Rabada, Liam Livingstone, Nathan Ellis, Prabhsimran Singh, Rahul Chahar, Rishi Dhawan, Sam Curran, Shikhar Dhawan, Shivam Singh, Sikandar Raza, Vidwath Kaverappa
