But, there were some major surprises as top Indian pacer Ishant Sharma and world No.1 limited-overs bowler Imran Tahir went unsold. Even unknown pacers like Aniket Choudhary, T Natarajan, Nathu Singh and Basil Thampy pocketed hefty pay-cheques but experienced Indian players like Ishant and Irfan Pathan missed out. Ishant recently bowled a fiery spell to give India the victory versus Bangladesh in the one-off Test in Hyderabad. Samuels has been in good form recently as he scored 334 runs from eight games in the Bangladesh Premier League as well. (Stokes hits jackpot in historic Indian Premier League player bid)Imran Tahir(Reuters image)This has to be the biggest surprise of them all.

Source: India Today February 20, 2017 12:00 UTC