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Indian Premier League franchise Punjab Kings issued a clarification over the purchase of Shashank Singh during the 2024 season auction on December 19, Tuesday. Punjab denied the reports that claimed that they ‘erroneously’ bought Singh during the auction. Kings spent a huge sum of money to acquire the services of eight players, including two overseas players. The Preity Zinta-owned franchise found themselves in comedy scenes over the purchase of the 32-year-old all-rounder from Chhattisgarh.
In the bidding war, PBKS purchased Singh for ₹20 lakh; however, within a few seconds, they signaled the auctioneer that they didn’t want the player. However, Mallika Sagar was quick to point out that the hammer had gone down and the auction was complete. It meant that the team couldn’t withdraw their bid and Singh was officially their player. Needless to say, the incident went viral all over social media, and Kings received heavy criticism for the same.
The franchise issued a clarification over the same and said that the player was always on their list stating the reason behind the confusion. The statement read, "Media have reported on Shashank Singh being bought erroneously by the Punjab Kings. The Kings would like to clarify that the player was always on our target list."
PBKS CEO Satish Menon stated, "Two players of similar names on the IPL list created confusion. I am delighted to share that the right Shashank Singh has been onboarded. He has put out some noteworthy performances, and we're ready to unleash his talent."
Notably, Punjab made some big purchases during the bid and acquired the services of names like Harshal Patel, Chris Woakes, Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajann, Prince Choudhary, Rilee Rossouw.
