IPL Auction 2020: 3 biggest buys for Sunrisers Hyderabad
The 2020 IPL Auction was held on Friday and as usual a lot of star players bagged mammoth contracts, while some also ended up surprisingly unsold.
Looking back at the auction now, 2016 Indian Premier League champions Sunrisers Hyderabad had a somewhat underwhelming day, with the team mainly focusing on young Indian batsmen.
With Rs. 17 crore available and seven slots to bid for, SRH picked Mitchell Marsh (Rs. 2 crore) and Fabian Allen (Rs. 50 lakh) as their two overseas players. India U-19 captain Priyam Garg (Rs. 1.9 crore), Jharkhand's Virat Singh (Rs. 1.9 crore), Bavanaka Sandeep (Rs. 20 lakh), Sanjay Yadav (Rs. 20 lakh) and Abdul Samad (Rs. 20 lakh) were the local uncapped player picks for SRH.
From these picks, it is evident that SRH went into the auction with the aim of solving their middle-order woes while also looking to build a team for the future. When the overseas players are taken out of the picture, both the new additions and already retained players give a youthful look to SRH's Indian contingent.
While SRH's rich coaching panel comprising of the likes of VVS Laxman and Muttiah Muralitharan might have wanted to utilise more of the purse to maybe buy a wicket-taking foreign fast bowler, they would still be reasonably satisfied with the choices considering that they now have a lot of talent to work with.
So given that the auction has just ended, it would be apt to look at the top three buys for SRH who could potentially come up with some scintillating performances next year.
#1 Virat Singh
His namesake who is also the Indian captain might be far more popular, but watch out for Virat Singh. The young Jharkhand batsman would be looking to try and become yet another famous cricketer from the state which has produced one of India's most beloved players in the form of MS Dhoni.
Virat Singh is a left-handed batsman who boasts the kind of skill-set that SRH have been longing for since a while.
Virat made his senior-level debut for Jharkhand at the tender age of 16 during the 2014-15 season. Given he was so young at that point, he had the habit of impressing in patches followed by a string of low scores. But as time has gone by, Virat has added consistency to his eye-catchy strokeplay - which has been evident in the ongoing 2019-20 domestic season.
After having a superb Vijay Hazare Trophy where he made 335 runs, the southpaw continued his good form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. It was perhaps his big-hitting efforts in the domestic T20 competition that made heads turn towards him and eventually led to SRH picking him in the auction.
In that tournament, Virat made quite an impression against Karnataka (76 off 44 balls), with his ability to clear the ropes against the spinners being the standout feature. Although Virat's T20 career strike-rate is only 124.45, one should remember that he has started to bat with clarity and freedom only recently.
With SRH looking for local middle-order batsmen, Virat might get a lot of opportunities to play next year.