Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra made a big prediction on Monday, saying that either Harshal Patel or Shardul Thakur, a promising 29-year-old star will be the most expensive in the upcoming 2022 Indian Premier League mega-auction Indian bowler (IPL).

Harshal, the Purple Cap winner for the 2021 season, picked a record 32 wickets for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). However, the Pacers who broke into India after that impressive season were not even retained by RCB. On the other hand, Shardul has developed the skills to pick wickets when his team needs it most, be it Chennai Super Kings (CSK) or India, and recently he has also shown his prowess in the bat, scoring Centuries in the series against South Africa earlier this month.

However, Aakash believes that Harshal will not cost that much, while he did not mention Shardul in his list of the top five most expensive Indian bowlers, which includes Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Rahul Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal and Deepak Chahar.

“First, he took wickets with new balls. There is no such Indian. You can think of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi…I didn’t even pick Harshal Patel, even though he won by 32 wickets last season The purple hat. But I don’t think he’s going to spend that much,” he said on his YouTube channel.

Aakash believes Deepak is a uniquely strong bowler who can give you early wickets and show the ability to hit the ball as seen in the South African ODI series. Aakash predicts that every team will be chasing the bowler at the February 12-13 auction.

“Deepak is your bank in the first three rounds. He can give you early wickets in power games. It doesn’t get any better than that. He can break opponents’ backs. At the end of death, he’s ok , not great. But it can work. I think CSK will try again to get him back. Ahmedabad and Lucknow will try too. Every team will try to get him on their team. He also Start playing,” he said.

Chahar made his IPL debut in 2016 for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants, before being drafted by CSK in 2018. However, the franchise released pacemakers ahead of the 2022 auction, with CSK retaining MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times