As always, Umme Ahmed Shishir, the wife of Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, stood by her husband again after the allrounder was ignored by all 10 franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in its mega auction recently.

Shakib is the only Bangladeshi cricketer to take part in most seasons of IPL, but this time, he was not picked by any team. Two of his old teams- Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad- overlooked him from the auction. His fans had expected that any of two new franchises- Gujrat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants- would go for him but they too overlooked one of the best allrounders of modern-day cricket.

It was assumed that Shakib's unexpected fate in the IPL auction came for his lean show in the last two seasons of the marquee cricket event. In IPL 2021, Shakib scored 47 in six innings and scalped only four wickets in eight innings- this lean show might have played a role behind his unfortunate fate in this year's mega auction.

But his wife, Shishir, came up with a different idea. In a social media post, she claimed that Shakib would have to miss the Sri Lanka series if he wanted to play the whole season of IPL, and this fact has prompted the franchises to not go for him.

"Before you get too excited a couple of teams contacted him directly ahead of time if he can be available for the full season, but unfortunately, he can't due to Sri Lanka series! This is why he did not get picked which is not a big deal, it is not the end, there's always next year! In order to be picked he needed to skip SL series, so if he was picked would you have said the same? or would you have made him a traitor by now? Sorry to pour water on your excitement!," Shishir wrote on her social media profile.

This statement of Shishir sounded more of a bullet to the fans who dislike Shakib to take part in IPL skipping national team assignments than a real reason behind his unexpected fate in the IPL auction.

Over last year, Shakib skipped at least two foreign tours for the national team and both were to New Zealand, and there was news that Shakib would skip the upcoming South Africa tour so that he can participate in IPL.

The claim of Shishir of Shakib not being able to play the whole IPL for the Sri Lanka series came as a surprise given the past of the allrounder who hesitated little to skip international assignments before.

Shakib played a total of 71 matches in IPL for two franchises and amassed 793 runs with two fifties and picked up 63 wickets in an economy rate of 7.44. He played a pivotal role for Kolkata Knight Riders on two occasions when the team clinched the title of IPL. But the past proved to be a little help for him to get a team this time.

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