Veteran batsman Robin Uthappa announced his retirement from all forms of international and Indian cricket – domestic and IPL – last month. This decision of 36-year-old Uthappa to retire from Indian cricket will allow him to take part in all the franchise leagues around the world.
Uthappa has a glorious T20 trophy cabinet: he was part of the team India that won the 2007 T20 World Cup, and then he won two IPL titles – one with Kolkata Knight Riders (2014) and Chennai Super Kings (2021) each.
Uthappa was re-bought by CSK for his base price of 2 crore in the last mega-auction. His retirement now leaves a big space in the middle order for CSK to fill with an experienced Indian batsman.
Here are 3 batsmen CSK might go after in the IPL 2023 auction to replace the retired Robin Uthappa:
Manish Pandey
Even though Manish Pandey is dropped from the Indian team for over a year, the 33-year-old’s value among the IPL franchises remains high. Lucknow Super Giants splurged out 4.6 crore for Pandey in the previous auction, but Pandey had a mediocre season, scoring 88 runs in 6 innings at just over run-a-ball.
His high price and a poor season might force LSG to release Manish Pandey, or they might look to trade him. In that case, CSK could jump at the offer given Pandey is one of the most experienced and successful domestic batsmen in the country. He has an experience of 97 first-class matches, and over 450 white-ball matches (List-A and T20) making him a sought-after commodity among IPL franchises. Pandey is adept in playing the anchor role and could also play aggressively after being set.
Karun Nair
The Rajasthan Royals purchased Karun Nair for 1.4 crore in the mega-auction, but the batsman got only 2 innings to play in which he scored 16 runs at a strike rate of 88. Nair, India’s only second Test triple-centurion, hasn’t had a remarkable time in the IPL, having featured in only 8 matches in the last four seasons.
But Nair remains a high-quality and high-class batsman whose good game against spinners could attract CSK as the tournament returns to the home and away format and CSK will need batters to play well on the spin-friendly Chepauk surface. 30-year-old Karun Nair has vast experience of playing across the country in domestic cricket and that would come in handy on the slow, spinning surfaces of Chennai.
Manan Vohra
Another batsman who has plenty of domestic cricket experience is 29-year-old Manan Vohra. Vohra was with LSG last season where he got only two matches to play wherein he scored 19 runs. Vohra has been part of 4 IPL teams but is yet to attain some deal of success. He is known for his attacking batting and can handle spin well.
A brilliant stroke-maker, Vohra is unlikely to get much game time at LSG as he is a backup batsman. CSK may consider going after Vohra – through trade or if he is in the auction – and give him a settled role in their line-up where he could flourish and display his full range of batsmanship.
