New Delhi: On the second day of the Indian Premier League mega auction held in Jeddah city of UAE, many players seemed to have hit the jackpot according to their current form and stature. Everyone was surprised to see Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting more than Rs 10 crore, similar headlines were garnered by Afghanistan’s young 18-year-old mystery spinner Allah Ghazanfar. This mystery spinner entered the ring with a base price of Rs 75 lakh, but there was fierce competition among the teams for Allah. The bidding for the Afghan bowler went on for quite a long time, so this off-spinner became a topic of discussion among the fans. However, in the end, Allah Ghazanfar was successful in collecting Rs 4.80 crore, much more than expected, the star spinner was snapped by the 5-time IPL Champions Mumbai Indians.
This is how his performance has been so far:
Allah Ghazanfar is being seen as Afghanistan’s next big spinner. So far he has taken a total of 12 wickets in 8 ODIs, but the important thing was his taking five wickets in a match. At the same time, he has taken 29 wickets in 16 T20 (not international) matches. Ghazanfar took four wickets in a match twice, but his economy run-rate made headlines. His economy run rate in international ODIs was 4.36, while in T20 it was 4.43.
Allah Ghazanfar started his cricketing journey as a fast bowler before former Afghanistan skipper Dawlat Ahmadzai turned him into a mystery spinner. He grabbed headlines with his brilliant showing during the 2024 U-19 World Cup where he finished with eight wickets in four matches.
That was enough to earn him a senior team call-up as he made his ODI debut against Ireland. He continued to impress and even won the Player of the Match award in the Emerging Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka A as Afghanistan went on to clinch the title.
The young spinner was also part of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) side that went on to win the IPL 2024 title. He was added to the squad as a replacement for Mujeeb Ur Rahman but did not play any matches for the franchise in the campaign.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru shelled out big bucks for seasoned pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, while Deepak Chahar made an ‘El Clasico’ move from Chennai to Mumbai. In the capped bowlers set, Tushar Deshpande fetched a big price for himself. His former side, CSK, came in quickly for him at Rs 1 crore, and Rajasthan Royals jumped in at Rs 1.20 crore.
