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David Warner has gone unsold in the IPL auction, as Australia's next hard-hitting opener Jake Fraser-McGurk earned his biggest ever pay day.
David Warner has gone unsold in the IPL auction for the first time, as Josh Hazlewood became Australia's biggest winner on the opening day of bidding.
One of the staples of the IPL since his debut in 2009, Warner was passed over by all sides at the mega auction in Jeddah on Sunday night.
There remains some chance he could be reintroduced into the bidding process later on, but at this stage Warner appears at risk of sitting out the tournament.
The left-hander sits fourth on the all-time run-scoring lists in the IPL, but had an underwhelming 2024 campaign at the Delhi Capitals.
Warner's only other IPL absence since his 2009 debut came in 2018, when he and Steve Smith were booted out of the tournament after the ball-tampering scandal.
Warner's failure to sell, alongside the likes of England's Jonny Bairstow, came as hard-hitting India star Rishabh Pant claimed top billing, going for $4.92 million to Lucknow.
Shreyas Iyer was the next highest seller at $4.87 million to Ricky Ponting's Punjab, while Jos Buttler was the most expensive overseas player at $2.88 million to Gujarat.
Hazlewood then commanded the equal-highest price of any overseas bowler, fetching almost $2.3 million to join Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
In doing so, he matched the price earned by Trent Boult and Jofra Archer, and commanded a payday well up on the $1.4 million he'd fetched amid recent seasons at RCB.
Mitchell Starc picked up $2.14 million to join Delhi, marking a drop in price from last year's record $4.43 million paid by Kolkata.
Jake Fraser-McGurk's swashbuckling 2024 campaign at Delhi earned him his first major payday, collecting $1.64 million to stay at the franchise.
It comes after the Victorian smashed 330 runs at a strike-rate of 230.04 for the Capitals last season, after going unsold in last year's initial auction and being picked up for $91,000.
Marcus Stoinis also earned a $2 million payday when purchased by Ponting at his Punjab Kings, while Glenn Maxwell will join them after an auction price of $765,000.
Mitch Marsh was the other Australian sold to Lucknow for $620,000.
Pat Cummins remains the highest earner of all Australians in the IPL, after being retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad prior to the auction at $3.26 million.
Travis Head had also been retained by Sunrisers for $2.54 million, while Smith headlines a list of 29 Australians available on the second day of the auction on Monday.
