5 underutilized players who should be released ahead of IPL 2020

The IPL 2020 is still a few months away. But with the auctions due to be held in December, franchises have been making a plethora of changes whether it is to their backroom staff or the players. Often in IPL, we have seen due to a combination of the presence of enough options for a particular spot and team dynamics, a lot of cricketers go underutilized, warming the bench for the entire season.

This has two repercussions. Firstly, the player warms the bench throughout the season which does no good to his confidence. Secondly, take for example Mumbai Indians. Everybody knows that the four-time champions have a lot of opening options in the form of Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, and Evin Lewis. Which means that a young 17-18-year-old opener has virtually no chance of getting a single game in the competition.

On the flip side, you look at a team like Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have always struggled with their opening since the departure of Chris Gayle and KL Rahul. While that fringe opener is of little-to-no-value in the Mumbai Indians set-up, he can be a handful at RCB.

This is why it is extremely important for the franchises to constantly release underutilized cricketers from their set-up. In the 2019 edition of the IPL, we saw a lot of bright young talents consigned to the bench for almost the entirety of the season. Today, in this article, we will have a look at five underutilized cricketers that the IPL franchises should release.

Here are 5 underutilized players who should be released ahead of IPL 2020

1. Ruturaj Gaikwad (Chennai Super Kings)

One of the most consistent performers at the domestic level, opener Ruturaj Gaikwad has made giant strides in his relatively short domestic career. A tall, lanky opening batsman with a robust base and a clear mindset, Gaikwad is a complete package. Gaikwad’s surge to the India A set-up was on the back of consistent runs that he racked up for his state Maharashtra in the 2018-19 season of Vijay Hazare Trophy.

His first outing for India A may have ended with a golden duck against the English Lions in January 2019, but the right-hander ensured that it was a slight blip. What followed next was a streak of consistent scores against Sri Lanka A and in the Caribbean. His scores read: 187*, 125*, 94, 74, 3, 85, 20 and 99. That’s 677 runs at an average of 112.83 and a strike-rate of 116.72.

Gaikwad was racked up by the Chennai Super Kings after he emerged as the highest run-getter for Maharashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, in the 2019 IPL auctions at his base price of Rs 20 Lakh. The right-hander even garnered praise from his idol, MS Dhoni for his continuous involvement in the game and a sharp mindset.

But, with CSK having enough opening options in the form of Du Plessis, Shane Watson and Murali Vijay, the 22-year-old did not get a single game in the tournament, and it will be prudent for his cause if the franchise can release him from their set-up, so that he can get opportunities in some other franchises like RCB who has struggled with its opening combination in the past few seasons.