Bangladesh’s ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan going unsold at the IPL 2022 mega-auction raised a lot of eyebrows.

While fans and experts were left surprised by the IPL team’s decision to not buy him, Shakib's wife Umme Ahmed Shishir has now revealed why her husband went unsold at the auction.

Taking to Facebook, Umme cleared the air, saying Shakib was approached by a couple of franchises but his commitment to the national side for the South Africa series didn't allow him to be available for the full season and, thus, he didn’t find any bidder.

"Before you get too excited a couple of teams contacted him directly ahead of time if he can be available for the full season, but unfortunately he can’t due to Sri Lanka series! This is why he did not get picked which is not a big deal, it is not the end, there’s always next year!" she wrote.

Umme further said that Shakib would be labelled as a traitor if he misses the South Africa series due to IPL.

"In order to be picked he needed to skip SL series, so if he was picked would you have said the same? or would you have made him a traitor by now? Sorry to pour water on your excitement!" she added.

While Shakib's wife mentioned Sri Lanka series in her post, Bangladesh are actually due to tour South Africa in late March and early April.

Bangladesh will play three ODIs and two Tests on the South Africa tour. While the ODI series will be played from March 18 to March 23, the Test series is scheduled to be held from March 31 to April 12.

The 2022 edition of IPL is likely to get underway in the last week of March, which means that the players involved in those games will not be available for the first 15 days of the cash-rich tournament.