IPL Auction 2020: 3 players who can replace Sam Billings at Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings franchise have released their overseas wicket-keeper batsman Sam Billings ahead of the 2020 IPL auction. The Englishman played 11 matches for the team in his two-year tenure with them.
Although Billings is a talented player, he wasn't a standout performer in the team. His only notable performance while playing for CSK was against Kolkata Knight Riders, where he contributed 56 runs off 23 balls in a winning cause.
Because of the presence of experienced overseas batsmen like Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis, Billings found it quite hard to break into the CSK Playing XI. Additionally, a shoulder injury ruled him out of action in the 2019 IPL.
After releasing Billings, CSK could target an overseas wicket-keeper batsman similar to him. As the aging MS Dhoni and the inexperienced Narayan Jagadeesan are the only Indian wicket-keepers in the team, CSK could look for a like-for-like replacement for Billings.
Here are the three possible candidates to replace Billings in the CSK squad.
Also see - England New Zealand head to head
#3 Tim Seifert
New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert could be a dark horse in the upcoming IPL auction. He produced some splendid batting performances against India and England in T20Is on their respective tours of New Zealand during 2019.
With 139 runs in 3 matches at a series-best average of 46.33, the 24-year-old proved his batting abilities against the Men in Blue. Moreover, in the T20I series decider against England, Seifert scored a 16-ball 39 which helped the Kiwis post a total of 146 off just 11 overs.
During the 2017-18 Super Smash, Seifert scored a 40-ball century, which is the fastest in a domestic T20 competition in New Zealand. Overall in domestic T20s, The 24-year-old has scored 1178 runs in 61 innings.
Sharing the dressing room with legends like MS Dhoni, Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis would help Seifert develop his batting further. As a fellow New Zealander, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming would love to groom Seifert.