Karnataka Premier League 2019: 3 teams which could lift the trophy
Karnataka Premier League 2019 is set to start from August 16th this year and the tournament will take place for two weeks, with the grand finale slated to be contested in Mysuru on September 1st.
The first game of this season will take place at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium where defending champions Bijapur Bulls will lock horns with previous season's runner-up Bengaluru Blasters, in what will be a repeat fixture of last season's final.
The player auctions for this season of the Karnataka Premier League was held in Bengaluru and amidst concerns regarding the availability of popular Karnataka stars such as Manish Pandey, Shreyas Gopal, Karun Nair, and K Gowtham, the focus was shifted on young and proven domestic performers in the auctions.
At the end of the auction, T20 specialists such as Pavan Deshpande and Aniruddha Joshi earned big bids from the auctions while surprisingly, Shreyas Gopal and Karun Nair went unsold. As we build up to KPL 2019, here are three teams which could win the trophy.
#3 Hubli Tigers
Although primarily a pace bowler, Vinay Kumar has surprised many with his batting performances in the Karnataka Premier League. He has often promoted himself up the order in the previous editions and has displayed his big-hitting abilities, owing to which he was retained ahead of the auctions.
Praveen Dubey is another player who was retained by the Hubli Tigers squad before the auctions. He is a wily leg spinner who has foxed the batsmen on many occasions in the past with his googlies. He has good a partner in Shivil Koushik who was once famous for his unorthodox action.
KB Pawan and Shishir Bhavane are the experienced players who have been added to the batting line-up and they will be suitably supported by the likes of star openers Mohammad Taha and Vishwanath M while all-round David Mathias will add an extra dimension to the squad.
This team has all its bases covered and most importantly, there is the right mix of youth and experience which makes the Tigers a difficult team to beat.