Adam Zampa was left “disappointment” as he went unsold at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction in Bangalore. The Australian wristspinner, who was one of the chief architects of his country’s T20 World Cup win last year, found no buyers despite the tournament expanding to two new franchises in Ahmedabad and Lucknow. Zampa had entered the […]
Adam Zampa was left “disappointment” as he went unsold at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction in Bangalore. The Australian wristspinner, who was one of the chief architects of his country’s T20 World Cup win last year, found no buyers despite the tournament expanding to two new franchises in Ahmedabad and Lucknow.
Zampa had entered the bidding war with a base sum of INR 2 crores but found himself at the wrong end of the auction dynamics. Franchises went wholeheartedly for home-grown Indian spinners and reserved their purse in the overseas category for spinners who can bat and balance their XIs. It meant that international spinners of repute found no interest.
The winning bid made for Wanindu Hasaranga by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) reflected the thought process around overseas spinners. While Hasaranga was rebagged by RCB for INR 10.75 crores, apart from Adam Zampa, the likes of Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Imran Tahir, Adil Rashid and Tabraiz Shamsi also had no takers.
Adam Zampa went unsold at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction in Bangalore.
“I missed out at the IPL auction unfortunately. I’m a little bit flat about that to be honest,” Adam Zampa was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au via ‘Unplayable Podcast’.
With the last few seasons seeing him transform into a more rounded and threatening bowler in white-ball cricket, Zampa reckons this is the year where he should’ve made it big in the IPL.
Since the start of 2019, the bowler has taken his 47 T20I wickets with an economy rate of 7.12. The 29-year-old bagged 13 scalps in seven outings of the T20 World Cup, where his incisiveness through the middle-overs was key to Australian men lifting the title for the very first time.
“I thought if there was ever a year that I was going to get the opportunity over there again, it would have been this year,” he said.
“Just with the way that I’m bowling and, from a personal point of view, I just feel like my game’s at a point where I just want to be playing the best cricket possible.”
“International cricket is that and then the next thing after that is the IPL.”
A remark from close teammate and ex RCB teammate Kane Richardson has given way to speculations that the pair’s decision to leave the IPL 2021 bubble early may have something to do with the lack of favours for them at the mega auction this year. But Adam Zampa chose to see the cricketing side of things.
“It’s very hard as an overseas spinner, particularly if you’re just a specialist spinner who’s not so much of a mystery spinner,” he said, having played only three matches over two seasons for RCB, who found it difficult to fit Zampa in. Partly due to the presence of veteran leggie Yuzvendra Chahal and partly the rules in relation to the 7-4 playing XI structure in the IPL.
“The mega-auction, the way it panned out, they spent a lot of money on fast bowlers, a lot of money on allrounders and even batsmen don’t get great money. They get okay money.”
“And then once all that money gets spent, they go, ‘Okay, we need some spinners now,’ and usually they feel like the local guys can do an okay job anyway.”
“I think there’ll be opportunities maybe next year with the IPL though … I think I’d be a valuable addition to any of those squads particularly with the way that I’m bowling at the moment,” he added.
