Here's why Shardul Thakur, Prithvi Shaw went unsold in IPL 2025 auction

Shaw's career now draws parallels with Vinod Kambli, a player whose promising talent ultimately faded due to personal setbacks and unfulfilled potential.

The IPL 2025 mega auction witnessed a lot of big signings with youngsters also fetching good money on the night. However, some of the players remained unsold in the auction as the likes of Prithvi Shaw and Shardul Thakur saw themselves left with no contract at the end of the 2 days in the auction.

 

"The game catches up with you, right?" said Ricky Ponting, who has spent almost 10 years as a coach in the IPL. 

 

At Delhi Capitals (DC) a few years ago, he had worked with Thakur. "So, you know, Shardul, only a couple of years ago, I think we paid about INR 10 crores for him in an auction. And now he's not. Now he's unsold," he added.    Shardul was bough at Rs 10.75 Crore in the auction back in 2022 by DC. With the impact player reducing the value of all-rounders in IPL, Thakur couldn't fecth him a contract this time round. 

Shardul Thakur IPL stats
YEAR	Matches	Runs	Wickets	BBM	Avg	Econ	SR	4W	5W
Career	95	2869	94	4/36	30.52	9.23	19.85	1	0
2024	9	309	5	2/61	61.8	9.76	38	0	0
2023	11	220	7	2/23	31.43	10.48	18	0	0
2022	14	473	15	4/36	31.53	9.79	19.33	1	0
2021	16	527	21	3/28	25.09	8.8	17.09	0	0
2020	9	275	10	2/28	27.5	8.5	19.4	0	0
2019	10	281	8	2/18	35.12	9.36	22.5	0	0
2018	13	431	16	2/18	26.93	9.23	17.5	0	0
2017	12	315	11	3/19	28.63	8.25	20.81	0	0
2015	1	38	1	1/38	38	12.66	18	0	0

 

 

Ricky Ponting 'sad' for Prithvi Shaw  Ponting also shared his thought for Prtihvi Shaw and was sad to see him not able to get a contract in the end. Once regarded as a prodigy for scoring a century on his Test debut at just 18, Shaw was even compared to Sachin Tendulkar. However, his career now draws parallels with Vinod Kambli, a player whose promising talent ultimately faded due to personal setbacks and unfulfilled potential. Recently, Shaw was dropped from the Mumbai Ranji team, with his fitness issues being highlighted as a significant factor in his decline. 

Prithvi Shaw IPL stats
YEAR	Matches	NO	Runs	HS	AVG	SR	100	50	4S	6S
Career	79	0	1892	99	23.95	147.47	0	14	238	61
2024	8	0	198	66	24.75	163.64	0	1	30	5
2023	8	0	106	54	13.25	124.71	0	1	16	1
2022	10	0	283	61	28.3	152.97	0	2	37	10
2021	15	0	479	82	31.93	159.13	0	4	56	18
2020	13	0	228	66	17.53	136.52	0	2	27	8
2019	16	0	353	99	22.06	133.71	0	2	45	9
2018	9	0	245	65	27.22	153.12	0	2	27	10

 

"Sad," he said. "You know, Prithvi, I still say now he is as talented a player as I probably ever worked with. He goes unsold in the auction and then doesn't even come back in the accelerator. And there are a lot of teams here that are looking at him. He's not playing. But as I said, the game catches up with you. So, yeah, I guess that. Yeah, that's about all you can say."

 

"So he's been to our High Performance center in Nagpur. He had trials there and really impressed Zubin and the team on the ground there. Both Zubin Bharucha (talent scout and inhouse coach of RR) and Vikram were there from our coaching setup. He is an incredible talent. And of course you've got to have the confidence that they can step up to the IPL level. So yeah, lots of work will go in over the coming months to continue to develop him. But he is a hell of a talent and we're really excited to have him as part of the franchise," Jake Lush McCrum, the CEO of Royals, said.