IPL 2020 Auction: 3 areas of concern for RR and who they should target
The IPL 2020 player auction is less than two weeks away, and with over 70 slots yet to be filled across the eight franchises, there is a lot of excitement surrounding the multiple plans that the teams will be looking to execute on 19th December in Kolkata.
One of the few teams to have released the most number of players ahead of the auction are the inaugural champions, Rajasthan Royals, who could be expected to enter quite a few bidding wars to land some impact players.
The Royals were one of the busiest teams during the trade window as they offloaded experienced stars Ajinkya Rahane and Dhawal Kulkarni while drafting in Ankit Rajpoot from KXIP.
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With Krishnappa Gowtham moving to KXIP for IPL 2020, RR also beefed up their spin bowling department with the acquisitions of leg-spinners Rahul Tewatia and Mayank Markande, with the duo set to join Shreyas Gopal and Riyan Parag in the squad.
The biggest name, however, in RR's list of released players was Jaydev Unadkat, who will yet again hope to land a big sum of money from the player auction. With the Royals having let go of Stuart Binny and Rahul Tripathi as well, they will need to spend wisely to cover a few grey areas in the squad.
On that note, here are three major areas of concern for RR and the players who they could target to fill those particular positions.
#3 Backup opening batsman
Having lost the services of Ajinkya Rahane to the Delhi Capitals, RR might need to invest on yet another opening batsman, either who will be backed to do well from the season opener or as a backup to the likes of Manan Vohra and Sanju Samson.
Vohra has featured as an opener for a majority of his career and could be backed to open with Jos Buttler, while Sanju Samson comes in at No.3 or No.4, depending on the role handed to Steven Smith during IPL 2020.
India's latest teenage sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal could be a frontrunner to land the opening position if one was to go by RR's philosophy of backing youngsters to do well. If they want some experience at the top, Evin Lewis or Colin Munro might also work out for their side, offering a left-right combination.
Then again, RR already have four quality foreign players in their setup, and this is where experience in the form of Robin Uthappa could be of good value to the side.