Mohammad Nabi becomes the first Afgan cricketer to be picked by an IPL franchise
Internet Desk: It was a red letter day for Afghanistan cricket as Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi became the first cricketers to take part in the Indian Premier League 2017. Young leggie Rashid was bought for a whopping price of Rs 4 crore by reigning IPL champions Sunrisers Hyderabad, while Nabi also went to the same franchise at his base price of Rs 30 lakh.
Both the cricketers will be representing their country in the cash rich league for the first time.
It was Nabi who was first picked by the Hyderabad franchise and what followed few minutes later generated a lot of interest.
Rashid, who had a base price of Rs 50 lakh surprised everyone as he attracted a price eight times his base price.
The cricketer from Nangarhar made his international debut against Zimbabwe in 2015. The leg spinner has so far taken 31 wickets from 18 ODIs with a best of 4/21. He took a similar number of wickets in T20Is as well.
Interestingly the English and Afghan cricketers were the biggest gainers at the auction. Ben Stokes was the hottest pick of the auction, attracting a price of Rs 14.50 crore. He was roped in by the Rising Pune Supergiants. Another English cricketer Tyla Mills went to Royal Challengers Bangalore for 12 crore. The death over specialist was also targeted by Knight Riders.
Stokes’ limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was taken at a base price of Rs 2 crore by Kings XI Punjab while all-rounder Chris Woakes was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for Rs 4 crore.
Similarily, the biggest surprise of the morning was 18-year-old leg-spinner Rashid Khan and all-rounder Mohammed Nabi, who were bought by defending champions SRH, making them the first Afghanistan cricketers to be bought by an IPL franchise.
However Afghanistan captain Asghar Stanikzai went unsold as there were no takers for him.