One player who each team should sign during the trade window
The next edition of the greatest cricketing extravaganza on earth, the Indian Premier League, is still five months away but the preparations for the 2019 edition are in full swing. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has asked all the eight franchises to submit the list of released players and have set a deadline of November 15 for the same.
The franchises have around 20 days to remove their shortcomings by trading players with other teams. IPL has two trading windows with the first one starting just after the end of the season and is open before a month to the auction and the second one after the auction ends till the start of the next tournament.
Mumbai Indians have got the ball rolling by acquiring star South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai have also released Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 2.2 crore) and Sri Lankan off-spinner Akila Dananjaya (Rs 50 lakh) to balance the books.
With the auctions likely to be held in mid-December, we take a look at some of the players that each IPL franchise should try to bring in the trading window before the auctions.
#1 Mumbai Indians- Sandeep Sharma from Sunrisers Hyderabad
Mumbai Indians had a poor 2018 campaign as the defending champions failed to make it to the playoffs. Mumbai have a very strong batting line up in the form of Rohit Sharma, Evin Lewis, JP Duminy, Surya Kumar Yadav. The all-rounder’s slots are well covered by the Pandya brothers, Kieron Pollard and a strong option on the bench is also there in the form of Ben Cutting.
The only slot that is a bit light on paper is the Indian fast bowling department. With the World Cup starting in less than a fortnight after the IPL concludes, it is very likely that Jasprit Bumrah would be rested during the fag end of the tournament. Currently, there is no adequate back-up for Bumrah at Mumbai.
The three-time champions should try to bring in Sandeep Sharma from Sunrisers who already have a plethora of options in terms of Indian bowling department. The Sunrisers have Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Siddarth Kaul who are quite a similar type of bowlers to Sandeep.
Then, there is also Khaleel Ahmed and Basil Thampi warming the bench at Hyderabad. Sandeep is a street-smart cricketer who can get you wickets with the new ball and can also bowl yorkers at the death.