After being acquired by Punjab, Shahrukh Khan smashes quickfire 50 in Vijay Hazare opener

Just three days after Punjab Kings acquired Shahrukh Khan at the IPL 2021 auctions, the youngster put on a stellar display of his skills as he took Tamil Nadu home in the opening game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Saturday. Khan smashed a quickfire 50 towards the end of the second innings as Tamil Nadu chased down 289 with one over to spare. The all-rounder played an innings of 55 runs off 36 deliveries which comprised of 7 fours and one maximum at a strike rate of 152.78. 

Tamil Nadu's chase was led by N Jagadeesan who notched up a valiant century before falling to Siddharth Kaul while Baba Aparajith fell 12 short of a century. In the bowling department, the wickets were shared between Aparajith, Sai Kishore, and M Mohammed as Tamil Nadu restricted Punjab for just 288 off their 50 overs. 

After having set the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on fire which Tamil Nadu eventually won, Shahrukh Khan ensured a bidding war at the IPL auctions recently where 292 players went under the hammer. The bidding war was started by Delhi Capitals before Royal Challengers Bangalore joined in. The two franchises bid relentlessly before Delhi backed out at ₹3.3 crores. It was likely that the all-rounder would go to RCB but Punjab jumped in and bagged the all-rounder for the staggering price after an intense bidding battle with the Bangalore-based franchise. 

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TN teammates celebrate Shahrukh's success

Veteran wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik shared a heartwarming video on social media where he and the Tamil Nadu players were seen celebrating in delight after one of their promising cricketers Shahrukh Khan made it big in the recently-concluded IPL 2021 Auctions. Taking to the micro-blogging site, DK had posted a video in which Shahrukh Khan was seen keenly following the auction as the players were travelling in the team bus and once he was acquired by Punjab Kings, all the Tamil Nadu players were seen celebrating. 

On January 20, the Punjab Kings franchise announced a list of their retained players for the IPL 2021 season. They retained as many as 16 cricketers, including skipper KL Rahul and star-attractions Chris Gayle, Mohammad Shami, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran among others. At the IPL 2021 auction, they further enhanced their squad by adding nine more players to their line-up. Apart from Shahrukh Khan, the franchise also made successful bids on Australian cricketers Moises Henriques, Jhye Richardson and the World No.1 T20I batsman from England, Dawid Malan.

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