Malinga unsold at IPL auction

Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga, one of the highest profile overseas players in the history of the IPL went unsold on day one of the IPL 2008 auction in Bengaluru. A regular at Mumbai Indians during the last 10-years before the franchise decided to release him to the auction this time had a base price of US$ 156,000, approximately Rs 24 million. 

The highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 154 wickets at 19.01 in 110 matches, Malinga was off-colour in the 2017 season. He picked up just 11 wickets from 12 matches, conceding at an expensive 8.84 runs an over. 

The 34-year-old Sri Lankan was country’s most influential bowler during the country's excellent run in global tournaments from 2007 to 2014. Since returning to the side after a knee-surgery, however, his form has been patchy.

In 2017, Malinga took 12 wickets in six T20Is and 10 wickets in 13 ODIs. There were 12 missed catches off his ODI bowling that do not show up in his final tally. He has not played for Sri Lanka since September last year and chances of returning to the side seems increasingly improbable.
He could be called back into the auction on day two if requested by any franchise. 
Malinga aside, there were several high-profile fast bowlers who went unsold in the afternoon: Ishant Sharma, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell McClenaghan, Josh Hazlewood and Tim Southee. South Africa's Kagiso Rabada became CSK's first under-32-year-old buy on the day.  
Meanwhile Chris Gayle arguably the highest-profile overseas batsman also went unsold. Gayle had set his base price at US$ 312,500 approximately Rs 48 million.

English allrounder Ben Stokes was the biggest buy in the first round of bidding, going from a base price of INR 2 crore to INR 12.5 crore (USD 1.95m approx) to Rajasthan Royals.