IPL Auction: Sunrisers Hyderabad bet on their net bowler Krains Fuletra

AHMEDABAD: The phone hasn’t stopped ringing at the Fuletra household in Rajkot since Tuesday and the celebrations have continued right since Krains Fuletra’s name came up for bidding at the mini-auction in Abu Dhabi.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) bought the left arm wrist spinner from Saurashtra at his base price of Rs 30 lakh. The net bowler for SRH in 2025, is set to be part of their main squad for next year’s edition of the IPL.“My family is delighted. This is a dream come true moment for my parents and me. Firecrackers are being burst at Maadiya village, from where we come. We had a farm and my father ran a paan shop there. Here in Rajkot, we celebrated by distributing sweets,” an ecstatic Krains told TOI.

Although 14 wickets in seven matches at a strike rate of 27 and an economy rate of 6 in the Men’s U-23 one-dayers and eight wickets from three matches in the ongoing CK Nayudu Trophy aren’t returns that will make heads turn, it is the bowling variety he offers which forced SRH to bet on him. His bowling found a fan in Heinrich Klassen, one of the fiercest and longest hitters of the white ball. In a podcast with former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, Klassen heaped praise on Krains.

“Last year at the IPL, one of our net bowlers was a very tiny left-arm leg spin bowler. He just bowled that size, and he wanted to bowl to me the whole time," Klassen had said.“I’ve faced enough left-arm leggies in my life, but I just couldn’t hit him. Every time if you hit one, then next it was slower or went wide. At this stage, I just wanted the ball to come to me. I need to hit you now. I just struggled the whole time,” admitted the South African. Klassen needn’t face Krains anymore, but if the bowler gets his lengths and variations right, opposition batters could find themselves in a spin at IPL 2026. “Left-arm wrist spin comes naturally to him,” Saurashtra U-23 coach Rakesh Dhruv told TOI, “ He flights the ball generously and uses his variations like the flipper and googly very smartly. He deceives batters by altering his length.”