IPL Auction 2020: 3 teams who will be looking to sign middle-order batsmen
The IPL Auction is just a month away and all the franchises had declared their respective lists of released and retained players last evening at 5 PM. The 2016 IPL winners Sunrisers Hyderabad released the least number of players (5) while Royal Challengers Bangalore dropped the most players (12).
Post the trade window, there are a few loopholes in all the franchises which the team managements would look to fill at the auction. Teams like Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab need some all-rounders in their team while some teams need a few middle-order batsmen in their squads.
The importance of the middle-order batsman is very high in T20 cricket because they have the onus of capitalizing on the momentum generated by the top order and if the primary batsmen fail, they need to build the team’s innings.
So, in this article, we will have a look at the three teams which will look to sign middle-order batsmen in the auction.
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#3 Kolkata Knight Riders
The two-time IPL winners, Kolkata Knight Riders, will try to win their third championship in 2020 but before that, the team management needs to strengthen its middle-order. Currently, Kolkata Knight Riders have Dinesh Karthik, Nitish Rana and Siddhesh Lad in the middle-order but, they will look to add a few more names to the list.
Talking about the players who can fill in the gaps, KKR may try to snap up Dhruv Shorey, David Miller or Ashton Turner in the auction or they can even sign their alumnus Yusuf Pathan. Another released player who could play in the middle-order for Kolkata in IPL 2020 is the South African wicket-keeper batsman, Heinrich Klaasen.
Among the unsold names from the previous year, the Knight Riders can opt for the services of Eoin Morgan or Shaun Marsh. Most importantly, KKR need a solid replacement for Robin Uthappa who had been the pillar for the team in the past few years.