IPL 2020: Aakash Chopra names 6 probable replacements for Harbhajan Singh in CSK

Harbhajan Singh, the veteran Indian off-spinner, won’t be a part of the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL), scheduled to get underway on September 19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Turbanator has pulled out from the tournament, citing ‘personal reasons’ and the development is expected to come as a body blow bearing in mind the experience he possesses.

Though CSK won’t have Harbhajan’s services, they will be having Imran Tahir, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner and Piyush Chawla in the spin department. In the meantime, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has named six probable replacements for Harbhajan going into the tournament. He put forth the names on his official YouTube channel.

Chopra makes his selections

To start with he named West Indies’ Roston Chase. The Caribbean cricketer is currently a part of the St Lucia Zouks in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and has delivered with both bat and ball. On the backs of his performance, the Zouks also made the semis. He has shown his effectiveness even in the ODI and T20I formats. Chopra then went for Australia’s Nathan Lyon.

Lyon doesn’t play a whole lot of limited-overs cricket, but his numbers in Test cricket are incredible. The tweaker has performed irrespective of the playing conditions. Lyon is no mug with the bat either and can play attacking cricket. As his third pick, Chopra zeroed in on Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan Miraz. The all-rounder hasn’t played a whole lot of T20Is for his national team.

However, in last year’s Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), he gave a good account of himself. Not only did he pick he pick up wickets, he also scored some handy runs, opening the batting for Mushfiqur Rahim’s Khulna Tigers. Thereafter, Chopra picked Jalaj Saxena, who has been an integral part of Kerala in India’s domestic circuit. He is yet to play in the IPL though.

Chopra then picked Vidarbha’s Akshay Wakhare, who has been more than handy with his off-breaks. As his last pick, Chopra went for KC Cariappa, who went unsold in the last IPL auction at his base price of INR 20 lakhs. In 11 IPL matches, the spinner has eight wickets and last played for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2019.

Here’s Aakash Chopra’s video: –