IPL 2018: 5 Karnataka cricketers who could make it big this season
Karnataka has always been a powerhouse as far as domestic Indian cricket is concerned. From the likes of Viswanath and Prasanna in the 70s, Kirmani and Binny in the 80s, Prasad and Srinath in the 90s, to Dravid and Kumble at the turn of the 21st century, the South Indian state has always produced cricketers who have proven to be match winners for the national side.
In recent years, Karnataka cricket has dominated the domestic circuit. They won the historic treble of the Ranji Trophy, the Irani Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy in the 2013-14 season. What further marked their dominance was the fact that they went on to repeat the same feat in the next season, retaining all the three titles.
These victories were built on consistent strong performances from a core bunch of players that includes Vinay Kumar, Stuart Binny and Mayank Agarwal, all of whom will be a part of various IPL teams come April.
As these players shone in the domestic season and most of them are currently hot property in the nation. After the IPL auction 2018, we know for a fact that the Karnataka boys are in high demand, with many of them grabbing big deals in the event.
Let us have a look at five such players who have the potential to justify their price tags and make this edition of the IPL a memorable one for themselves.
All of these five Karnataka boys will rue the fact that they would not be able to claim ‘Namma Bengaluru,’ as none of them was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore this time around.
#5 Robin Uthappa
The right-handed opening batsman has been one of the star performers for Kolkata Knight Riders in the past seasons of IPL. The owners showed their faith in the Coorg batsman yet again and retained him using the Right to Match card for Rs 6.4 crore.
Having played 149 IPL matches, Uthappa is a very experienced T20 cricketer. He has scored 3778 runs at an impressive strike rate of 131.63 and has scored 22 half centuries as well, seven of which have won him the Man of the Match award.
Uthappa ended IPL 2014 with 660 runs, winning the Orange cap, which was instrumental in KKR winning the tournament that year. His wicketkeeping skills make him a more-than-handful resource for any T20 team. This year, with no Gautam Gambhir in their ranks, KKR may look towards Uthappa for captaincy.
He will certainly play a pivotal role in leading what is otherwise a pretty inexperienced batting line-up for the franchise.