IPL 2026: Top 3 Foreign Cricketers Who Deserved a Chance

The IPL 2026 auction was high energy because of foreign players are unpreditable coming year. The all teams purchased 77 players with 215. 45 crore, many foreign cricketers went unsold. This happened mainly because it was a mini-auction, where teams only looked to fill a few key gaps instead of building full squads.

Jamie Smith

Jamie Smith is a wicketkeeper-batter from England. He is performing well, but in the IPL aution, no one selected him. He retained his reserve price of ₹2 crore, aiming to pick up his first IPL contract. However, no team selected him, although his name was shortlisted thrice, with some teams considering it in the quick auctions.

Shai Hope

Shai Hope is regarded by many as the best batter from the West Indies in recent years. However, unexpectedly, he was not picked up in the IPL auction. This year, in all forms of international cricket, he has been in unstoppable form. In T20Is, he has scored 556 runs from 19 innings, with 4 fifties and 1 hundred. However, in ODIs, he did even better by scoring 678 runs at an average of 55.8 along with 4 fifties and 2 hundreds.

Maheesh Theekshana

Maheesh Theekshana, the Sri Lankan spinner, who has performed well in Indian conditions in the past, went unsold in the IPL 2026 Auction. His base price was INR 2 crore, but no team bid for him. The last experience of Maheesh Theekshana in the IPL was with the Rajasthan Royals. He had a decent season and took 11 wickets in 11 matches with an economy of 9.76.