IPL Auction 2024: Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga was sold was sold at his base price of 1.5 crores to Sunrisers Hyderabad. The wrist-spinner had an impressive IPL 2022 for his previous franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore as he notched up 26 wickets and he played every game for the Bangalore-based franchise in their road to the IPL play-offs, where they bowed out to Rajasthan Royals in the Qualifier 2.
However, an injury-prone Hasaranga had a forgettable IPL 2023 with only 9 wickets, as his campaign was marred with constant injuries and later on, got released by Royal Challengers Bangalore after the campaign. Injuries still resisted and it proved quite costly for the leg-spinner as he had to withdraw his name from the World Cup squad of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka ended up having a torrid campaign as they registered one of their worst campaigns ever in World Cup history.
The purchase of Wanindu Hasaranga by Sunrisers Hyderabad provides them with a replacement of Adil Rashid, whom they released before the auction, and also provides them with a much handy all-round option in the lower order alongside Washington Sundar because of his ability to bat and play fearless cricket. The purchase of the Sri Lankan is a complete value addition to their franchise as they lacked a quality wrist spinner in their ranks ever since the departure of their former player Rashid Khan, who is already amongst the living legends in the T20 format.
Hasaranga will be competing with the likes of Aiden Markram, Heinrick Klassen, Marco Jansen, Glenn Phillips, Fazal Farooqui, Pat Cummins and Travis Head for a starting spot in the playing XI due to the fcat only four overseas are allowed to play at once and no overseas impact player can come in if the starting XI already consists of four overseas players. He will come in handy alongside Washington Sundar in the spin department coming this IPL 2024, given the spin-friendly conditions of majority of Indian grounds.