The final list for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 auction has already been out with a total of 332 cricketers set to go under the hammer in Kolkata on December 19. While 997 players had initially registered, the final list has been made prepared after the eight franchises submitted the name of their shortlisted players. With INR 2 crore as the highest reserve price, seven overseas players – Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Chris Lynn, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Dale Steyn & Angelo Mathews have opted to be slotted in the highest bracket. Robin Uthappa is the only Indian player in the Auction list with a base price of INR 1.5 crore. Other Indian stars, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan & Jaydev Unadkat have set their base price at INR 1 crore.
A total of 186 Indian players, 143 overseas players & 3 players from Associate Nations will be up for grabs in the IPL 2020 Player Auction.
In CricketNews.com we are looking at the auction strategies of all the eight teams. In this piece, we will analyse the possible plan of action of the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
List of retained players:
Kane Williamson, David Warner, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Billy Stanlake, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan.
List of released players:
Martin Guptill, Deepak Hooda, Ricky Bhui and Yusuf Pathan
Slots remaining: 7 (5 domestic, 2 overseas)
Purse remaining: Rs 17 Crore
Possible auction strategy:
The two-time former champion Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise has made drastic changes in their think-tank this year. They have parted ways with head-coach Tom Moody and appointed England’s World Cup, winning coach Trevor Bayliss, who had previously worked with Kolkata Knight Riders as well. Additionally, former Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has been roped in as the assistant coach.
Prior to the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Kolkata on December 19, Sunrisers have retained most of its core group releasing only Martin Guptill, Deepak Hooda, Ricky Bhui and Yusuf Pathan. Furthermore, their star player Shakib Al Hasan has been banned by the ICC for a year for failing to report bookie approach, for which the Bangladesh all-rounder won’t be available in the next edition of IPL.
Hence, going into the auction, the Hyderabad franchise will primarily look for Shakib’s replacement and more batting options in their middle-order. However, with their overseas pool almost sorted and just two slots left, they will look for more Indian options for these positions.
In the bowling department, along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Siddharth Kaul; SRH needs more death bowling option. Though they have Aussie pacer Billy Stanlake, perhaps the think-tank may look for his back-up option as well. They will also seek a replacement of Jonny Bairstow, who might leave in the middle of the tournament due to the start of the English home season.
Possible buys:
For middle-order, Uthappa can be a handy choice for Hyderabad. For his previous franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, he has a vast experience of batting in the middle-order. Additionally, Utappa can be a back-up wicketkeeper as well.
Two Aussie cricketers, hard-hitting opener Chris Lynn and flamboyant middle-order batsman Glenn Maxwell along with English keeper-batsman Sam Billings will be in SRH’s radar. For the death bowling, West Indies’ Kesrick Williams or South Africa’s Chris Morris can be handy pick as well.
Among the domestic cricketers’ people like R Sai Kishore, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Darshan Nalkande, Rohan Kadam, and Priyam Garg, who have done well of late, may get bids from SRH table during the auction.