5 Regular openers who may be demoted in IPL 2020

IPL 2020 is just a week away as the cricket world prepares to witness a unique edition of the Indian Premier League. For the first time in over a decade, a foreign country will host the entire IPL season. Because of the Coronavirus pandemic, BCCI had to shift the tournament out of India, and UAE secured the event’s hosting rights. 

The auction for this year’s IPL had happened way back in December, and all teams have almost every player available for this season. All the squads are equally balanced, especially in terms of batting. Some franchises have stacked up their batting department with three-five opening options available. The batsmen have become quite flexible in the T20 format. 

Since only two batsmen can open the innings, here are the five regular IPL openers who might be demoted to the middle-order in the 13th season of the IPL. 

1. Rohit Sharma – Mumbai Indians

The captain of Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma, regularly opens the innings for the Indian cricket team, and he also started to open the innings for Mumbai in the IPL. Sharma has achieved most of his success in the IPL, batting in the middle order. Mumbai needs some stability in its middle-order this year. 

With the team management having Chris Lynn, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, and Aditya Tare available, the Mumbai skipper would prefer to bat in the middle order. The defending champions could also use Ishan Kishan as an opener if they want a blistering start in the powerplay overs. 

Talking about The Hitman’s performance in the middle order, Rohit has batted at number four 86 times in the IPL. He has amassed 2,392 runs at an average of 32.77 at that position. Besides, his only IPL hundred has come while batting at number 3.