IPL 2020 Auction: From Robin Uthappa to Yashasvi Jaiswal, top 10 Indian players who could attract big bids

This time it's the turn of 'The City of Joy' i.e. Kolkata to play host to the ritual pre-season IPL frenzy aka IPL Auctions which are scheduled to be held on December 19. Excitement, tension, drama, happiness — one can find all sorts of emotional ingredients in this gala event which will help franchises address their shortcomings before the next season gets underway.

An array of international, capped and uncapped Indian stars will go under Hugh Edmeades' hammer and like any other season, there is quite a bit of anticipation for some really serious bidding wars between the teams. Almost every season, some bids catch us completely off-guard due to their astronomical figures and the same trend is expected this year also. We have come up with a list of 10 Indian players who could be the potential gainers of such hefty IPL bids.

Robin Uthappa

Base Price — 1.5 Crore

Robin Uthappa will be looking for a new IPL franchise for the first time in six years after being released by KKR. Sportzpics

With 177 IPL matches resulting in more than 4400 runs coming at a strike-rate of over 130, a player with such heavy-weight IPL stats is bound to attract the attention of teams looking to strengthen their Indian batting armory. Uthappa's last IPL run-tally stood at 282 runs, marking his first year since the 2011 season when his run-tally dropped below 300 runs. This in itself is a huge statement of his contribution to Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) success over the years. With him being released from the KKR setup, chances are ripe for a fierce showdown between the franchises to rope him in for the 2020 season.

Rahul Tripathi

Base Price — 20 Lakhs

One of the contributing pillars to the dream-run of Rising Pune Supergiant (RPSG) in the 2017 season was their swashbuckling opener from Maharashtra who accumulated a tally of 391 runs coming at a whopping strike-rate of 146.44. That year saw Tripathi establishing a reputation of one of the best powerplay exploiters going around in the league. In the subsequent season, he found himself in the Rajasthan Royals' (RR) camp who were making a comeback into the IPL arena after serving a ban for two years. But the presence of Ajinkya Rahane at the top meant that RR could play only him primarily as a middle-order batsman who, at times, had to come as low as No 7. The result was obvious as he couldn't replicate the 2017 success in the following two seasons. The underperformance had much to do with the manner of his utilisation rather than any inherent weakness in his game and now that he has been released from the RR camp, we can expect a box-office bid for the youngster.

Ricky Bhui

Base Price — 20 Lakhs

Ricky Bhui will be looking for more opportunities in IPL 2020 after being released by SRH. Sportzpics

Domestic Indian batsmen who can pace their innings according to the situation are perennially in demand in the IPL arena and Ricky Bhui is one such underutilised domestic asset. Part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) camp since last two seasons, Bhui could get only two outings in the past two seasons for SRH. However, his destructive abilities were on full display earlier this year when he smashed a 38-ball ton in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (2018-19) game against Nagaland. He finished the season with a strike-rate of 207 — best among all players to have played at least 5 games. He has also started his Ranji Trophy 2019-20 campaign with a well-compiled hundred against Vidarbha. His T20 average of nearly 30 runs per inning and a decent strike-rate of 130.35 make him an ideal middle-order Indian pick for the IPL teams to plug their middle-order chinks.

Hanuma Vihari

Base Price — 50 Lakhs

Vihari is a technician who fits the bill of a stabilizing middle-order batsman perfectly well. He may not be as destructive as someone like Rishabh Pant but his class is undeniable — an asset which helped him churn out truckloads of runs in the domestic circuit making his team India debut inevitable. The best use of his abilities lies in giving him a proper role, preferably in the top-4, rather than scattered opportunities which have, so far, dotted his IPL career. He started his Ranji Trophy 2019-20 campaign with a classy 83 against Vidarbha and has scored 7 fifty-plus scores in his last 14 innings (international and first-class combined); giving him a decent chance of bagging a very good IPL bid in the forthcoming auctions.

Baba Aparajith

Base Price — 20 Lakhs

IPL isn't a new experience for Aparajith. He has been a part of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and RPSG setups before but the presence of already established heavy-weights in both franchises prevented the Tamil Nadu lad from making his IPL debut. However, an exceptional all-round Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign this year has brought him back into the IPL reckoning. 598 runs (third highest in the competition) from 12 games at an average of 66.44 along with 11 wickets coming at a superb economy of 4.39 runs an over will serve as a really strong statement for the IPL team managements and have surely boosted his chances of making an IPL debut in the 2020 season.

Yashasvi Jaiswal

Base Price — 20 Lakhs

From struggling daily to make the ends meet to coming into the IPL auction 2020 as one of the most promising Indian batting talents, it has been quite a journey for a 17-year-old Yashaswi Jaiswal. His moment of national reckoning came in October this year when he smashed a double-ton in a Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019 game against Jharkhand, making him the youngest player to score a List-A double century. Overall, he scored a mammoth 564 runs from just 6 games in the competition which included 3 tons. He continued his merry-making with the bat in the Youth ODI against Afghanistan U19 team in Lucknow where he scored an unbeaten century besides scalping a couple of Afghan batsmen too. His name will be among the most sought-after Indian players in the auction pool of December 19.

Piyush Chawla

Base Price — 1 Crore

Piyush Chawla has 150 wickets to his name in IPL. Sportzpics

Another important contributor to the KKR's success story, Piyush Chawla may be on the wrong side of the 30-year-old mark but he has that tenet, and that too in plenty, the importance of which has been stamped firmly by CSK's success in the last two seasons i.e. experience. A veteran of 157 games, Chawla stands joint-third along with Harbhajan Singh in the list of all-time highest wicket-takers in the tournament's history with a tally of 150 scalps. Besides the crafty guiles and tricks with the ball, Chawla is a very handy lower-order batsman — a fact well established by the heroic hand played by him in the IPL 2014 final when he helped KKR lift their second trophy in what was a steep chase against Kings XI Punjab. His proven record and ambidextrous abilities with bat and ball make him a prime candidate to bag a hefty IPL contract in the Kolkata auctions.

Mohit Sharma

Base Price — 50 Lakhs

Though the seasoned campaigner from Haryana could get only one game in the last season for CSK, a glance through his IPL journey is enough for anyone to know that Mohit Sharma is meant for a much bigger role in his team's bowling arsenal. 91 wickets from 85 IPL games is a statement enough for Sharma's incisive abilities with the ball. Be it taking advantage of the movement offered by the new cherry or surprising the batsmen with his unique back-of-the-hand slower ball, Sharma has got a range of variations to outsmart any batsman on his day. With quite a few teams on the lookout for quality Indian pace options, Sharma can easily fit in the quest.

Jaydev Unadkat

Base Price — 1 Crore

Jaydev Unadkat attracted a bid of INR 8.4 crore in last auction by RR. Sportzpics

The Saurashtra pacer has been the 'pearl of the eyes' for the IPL teams for the past two IPL auctions which saw him bag hefty price tags of INR 11.5 Crore (RR for 2018 season) and INR 8.4 Crore (RR for 2019 season) on the back of his breakthrough 2017 season for RPSG when he took 24 wickets from 12 games at an amazing economy of 7.02 runs an over. Though he couldn't replicate the 2017 magic in the following two seasons, his consistent hard work in the domestic circuit has ensured that IPL franchises' interest and faith in his abilities stay intact. With 12 wickets from just 7 games coming at an economy of 5.74 runs per over in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and 9 wickets in the Ranji Trophy 2019-20 campaign opener, it will not be a surprise if he bags yet another hefty IPL contract.

Barinder Sran

Base Price — 50 Lakhs

The boxer-turned-fast-bowler hit the limelight during the 2016 IPL season when his 14 wickets from as many games played an important part in Sunrisers Hyderabad's maiden IPL triumph. The next two seasons saw Sran play just seven games for SRH (2017) and KXIP (2018) but his potential was rewarded by Mumbai Indians (MI) setup in the IPL 2019 auctions as they went on to flush out INR 3.4 crore to diversify their pace bowling arsenal through his left-arm seamers. However, an already settled MI side resulted in Sran ending the season with just two opportunities and a subsequent release from the MI setup before the IPL 2020 auction. Left-arm seam bowlers aren't plentiful in the cricketing arena and IPL team managements, being mindful of this fact, will surely want to have this unique pace bowling dimension in their repertoire of ammunition for the coming season.