IPL 2019: One overseas player from each franchise who might be underutilized
As we have seen for years, the Indian Premier League is all about finding the right combinations and to create an optimum team that can win most of the matches. It demands the right blend of Indian International, uncapped and overseas cricketers for which the franchises even sacrifice a hefty amount of money.
The squad building is arguably the most significant stage to attain the above and to fulfill that, the franchises might end up buying an excess of resources, due to which they might remain unutilized.
Quality players like Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite, Sam Billings, Heinrich Klaasen, Tom Curran, and many others spent a lot of time warming the bench last season.
Without much ado, here are some of the overseas players, who might remain underutilized in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.
#8 Carlos Brathwaite - Kolkata Knight Riders
Carlos Brathwaite, who specializes in T20 cricket, is the current captain of the Windies' T20I side. The tall all-rounder is famous for his heroics in the WT20 final against England, where he slammed Ben Stokes for 4 consecutive sixes to help his team clinch their second WT20 title.
The Caribbean all-rounder was roped-in by Kolkata Knight Riders for a whopping INR 5 crores in this year's IPL auctions after battling against Kings XI Punjab.
With three spots for the overseas players automatically acquired by Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, and Andre Russell, KKR will mostly look to support their inexperienced fast bowling attack by addition of a foreign bowler.
#7 Mitchell Santner - Chennai Super Kings
The New Zealand all-rounder was grabbed by the current champions, Chennai Super Kings, at his base price of INR 50 lakhs in the previous auction. Mitchell Santner missed the IPL 2018 due to an injury and he was replaced by David Willey in the squad.
Santner is an economical left-arm spinner and a left-handed batsman capable of clearing the ropes at the back end of the innings. CSK is already flooded with spinners like Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma and all-rounders like Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Shane Watson to provide them the required balance. Santner might find it hard to break into the XI.