The 17th match of IPL 2024 between Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings (GT vs PBKS) was very exciting. Despite the failure of the top order, Punjab won the match by three wickets with two balls remaining. Shashank Singh was the hero of this victory of Punjab. Shashank Singh scored an unbeaten 61 runs on 29 balls to give Punjab Kings a thrilling victory.
However, there was a lot of controversy regarding Shashank Singh at the time of auction. Punjab Kings co-owners Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia looked confused after winning the bid for uncapped Shashank Singh in the IPL 2024 auction. It seemed that the IPL franchise had no intention of buying the player. However, the franchise later issued a statement and decided to move ahead with Shashank.
Shashank Singh is 32 years old. He made his IPL debut in 2022. But from the year 2019, teams had placed bets on him. Before Punjab Kings, Shashank had also been a part of Hyderabad and Rajasthan teams. He was born on November 21, 1991. Before Punjab, he had also been a part of the teams of Rajasthan, Delhi Daredevils, and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Image Source: Jio Cinema
Shashank Singh has played 58 domestic T20s, scoring 754 runs at a strike rate of 137.34. The all-rounder plays for Chhattisgarh at the national level. Shashank Singh has made a unique record in his name in Indian domestic ODI cricket. He did the feat of taking 150 runs and 5 wickets in the match against Manipur in the 2023 Vijay Hazare Trophy. Shashank Singh is the first player to achieve this feat in a first-class cricket match.
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When the name of Chhattisgarh's ace batsman Shashank Singh came up in the mini auction, no other team showed interest in buying him. Meanwhile, Punjab Kings raised the stakes to buy him at the base price. After some time of buying Shashank, Punjab Kings realized their mistake. They felt they had bought the wrong player. Actually, there was another Shashank Singh in this mini auction who was 19 years old. Later, others including Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia informed Mallika Sagar, who was conducting the auction, about this and demanded the return of the player, but by then it was too late. According to the rules, the name of a player sold in the auction cannot be returned, in such a situation Punjab had to include Shashank Singh in its squad. However, later the Punjab team made it clear by posting on 'X' that they are satisfied with the purchase of Shashank Singh.
Image Source: Jio Cinema
Shashank Singh has forgotten his humiliation in the IPL 2024 auction and has traveled from the bottom to the top. When the team was in trouble in the match against Gujarat Titans, Shashank Singh stood at the crease like Angad. There was a time when while chasing the target of 200 runs, the visiting team lost 4 wickets for 70 runs. Then Shashank came at number 6 and played an unbeaten inning of 61 runs with the help of 6 fours and 4 skyscraper sixes in 29 balls and led the team to victory. Shashank was awarded the Player of the Match award for this excellent performance.
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