IPL 2020: Aakash Chopra picks his 6 best spinners going into the tournament

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has moved to the UAE for the upcoming season and with a dry and hot climate, the pitches are often regarded as a paradise for spinners. Thus, the tweakers are expected to be among the highest wicket-takers in this year’s IPL.

Aakash Chopra, the former Indian opening batsman, has picked six best spinners in this year’s IPL. At the 6th position, he chose Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the Afghanistan spinner, who will be representing Kings XI Punjab. For 5th, he chose Imran Tahir the wrist-spinner from South Africa who will be playing under the recently-retired MS Dhoni for Chennai Super Kings.

“At No.6, I am picking Mujeeb Ur Rahman. He has two or three very good variations. He bowls with the new ball and also in the middle overs. At No.5, I am going with Imran Tahir for a variety of reasons, the first being he does very well in T20 cricket. And Dhoni will get the best out of him,” Chopra said.

On 4th, he picked Ravichandran Ashwin. The experienced Indian bowler is known for his presence of mind and a lot of variations that he has in his ammunition. “Ashwin has the experience, he has a normal off-spin and the carrom ball and bowls the googly also in between. But the thing I like most about him is his temperament, he doesn’t get flustered.”

Top 3 spinners of the IPL 2020 as per Aakash Chopra

At 3rd, the Delhi lad chose Sunil Narine, the T20 specialist mystery spinner from West-Indies. The Trinidadian is associated with Kolkata Knight Riders since the beginning of his IPL journey.

“At No.3, I am going with Sunil Narine. His action has changed a little and has not been that effective after the change. So if Dinesh Karthik uses him well, then this player will do very well and win matches for KKR.”

The former cricketer implied that it was a close contest at top two positions and he picked Yuzvendra Chahal at number 3. The right-hander applauded the intelligence of the leggie and expected him to do well considering the big grounds in UAE.

“There is a lot of fight between the two leg-spinners but I am going with Chahal at No.2. His biggest plus point is his brain. Skill-wise he is very good but he outfoxes the batsmen with his brain. The big grounds will also help him.”

The cricketer also mentioned that he didn’t pick Kuldeep Yadav considering his form in the previous season. “Kuldeep could also have been there but his last IPL was not that good.” At the top of the chart, he picked Rashid Khan, who will be representing Sunrisers Hyderabad. He has been second-highest wicket-taker for the franchise just behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He has picked up 55 scalps in 46 games, with an average of 21 and economy of mere 6.55 runs per over.

“At No.1, I have got the Afghanistan lion, Rashid Khan. I have kept him at No.1 due to 2-3 reasons although we saw in the last IPL that batsmen had figured him out a little. But he is coming after playing the CPL. So he will get into this tournament and hit the ground running. He has also mentioned that he is developing a new delivery.”