IPL 2018 auction: 5 potential biggest uncapped buys

The Indian Premier League has now established itself as a breeding ground for young Indian cricketers. Many of the Indian team's current mainstays made their mark in the IPL. Unsurprisingly, the 2017 auction saw uncapped Indian players trump familiar Indian stars. While players like T Natarajan, Mohammed Siraj, Aniket Chaudhary and K Gautam all bagged deals of at least 2 crores, senior players like Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Irfan Pathan went unsold!

This year shouldn't be any different. After all, uncapped players are gems in the auctions. They are bustling with talent and are itching to prove themselves. Also, owing to their unpopularity, they are easy on the pockets at the auctions. Also, with retention costs going up (i.e. INR 33 crores for 3 players, INR 21 crores for 2), it becomes critical for franchisees to pull off some steals at the auction. With a base price starting at INR 20 lakhs, uncapped players are bound to have the attention of franchisees.

In the recently revealed list of retained players, it was surprising to see only one team opting to hold on to an uncapped player. The Royal Challengers Bangalore retained Sarfaraz Khan, making him the only uncapped player to be retained.

Last year, the Sunrisers Hyderabad signed the services of speedster Mohammed Siraj. Siraj found his place in the starting eleven more often than not, and even went on to don the coveted Indian jersey following his IPL exploits. The first decade has seen plenty of uncapped players like Siraj who've made their way from nothing to representing their nation at the highest level.

In order to grab the attention of Indian selectors, these uncapped players will be looking to prove themselves in the IPL. Let's take a look at five uncapped players who are likely to be prominent in the upcoming IPL auctions:

#5 Basil Thampi

Thampi featured regularly for the Lions and bagged 11 scalps in his 12 games

In the most recently concluded edition of the Indian Premier League, Basil Thampi was given the 'Emerging Player' award. Of the eight Indians who had won this award before him, six went on to don the Indian colours.

His consistent performances across every tournament that he featured in rightfully earned him a chance to represent India. Switching from football to cricket at the age of 17, the medium-pacer made his mark in the Syed Musthaq Ali trophy with a ferocious four-wicket maiden. He was bought by the Gujarat Lions at a reasonable price of INR 85 lakhs in the 2017 auction.

Thampi featured regularly for the Lions and bagged 11 scalps in his 12 games. He continued his form in the Duleep trophy as well and even got the opportunity of playing two games for India-A. He bagged three wickets in four balls for India-A against New Zealand, which triggered a Kiwi collapse.

In the recently concluded Ranji trophy, Thampi bowled magnificently to help Kerala reach the quarter-finals. His consistent performances saw him get an India call-up in the recently foregone Sri Lanka T20 series. However, he was always on the bench and thus remains uncapped.

#4 Deepak Hooda

Along with his explosiveness with the bat, Hooda is known for his accuracy with the ball

It's no secret that all-rounders are the most coveted in the IPL auctions. Deepak Hooda is an exciting prospect, with the added bonus of having been around in the IPL for three seasons now. He debuted for the Rajasthan Royals back in 2015, where he shone in the middle-order with cameos, racking up 151 runs in 14 games at an impressive strike rate of 158.94.

In just his second ever IPL match, he smashed 54 of 25 balls and bowled 0 for 20 in four overs. Along with his explosiveness with the bat, Hooda is known for his accuracy with the ball and his agility in the field.

His performance saw him bag a whopping INR 4.2 crores from the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2016 auction. He featured in every single game for the 'Biryani Army' en route the IPL title. Owing to a consistent opening partnership for the Sunrisers in the form of Warner and Dhawan, Hooda didn't get many chances to express himself with the bat.

Hooda has shown what he can do with the bat in other tournaments though. He scored a fantastic double century for Baroda in the previous edition of the Ranji Trophy. He was even given the honour of captaining Baroda this year, and though they didn't make it to the quarter-finals, Hooda impressed with 277 runs in four matches at an average of above 46. He also impressed while playing for India-A against New Zealand, having notched up a half-century in addition to an unbeaten 35.

His consistency and ability to pitch in with both bat and ball unsurprisingly earned him a spot in the Indian squad for the recently concluded T20 series against Sri Lanka. Unfortunately for him, Hooda didn't get the honour of donning Indian colours. This leaves the 22-year-old from Baroda uncapped for the upcoming IPL auction. With his IPL experience and all-round ability, Hooda is surely going to be one of the most sought-after uncapped players at the auction.

#3 Rahul Tripathi

Tripathi's tally for last season totalled to an impressive 391 runs

With the likes of MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane and Ben Stokes in their ranks, few would have expected Rising Pune Supergiant's second-highest run-scorer after Steve Smith to be Rahul Tripathi. The relatively unknown Pune-bred player churned out consistent performances at the top of the order for his home franchisee.

Rahul Tripathi did exceptionally well in age-group level tournaments as a youngster. Unfortunately, his father's army posting took Rahul to Srinagar, where the atmosphere was just not conducive to his cricket development. However, on his return to Maharashtra a few years later, Rahul picked up from where he had left off. He had an excellent 2014/15 Ranji season where he amassed over 500 runs. The 2015/16 season again saw him notch 492 runs.

Tripathi had a dismal 2016/17 domestic season though and wasn't expected to deliver in the IPL. However, he proved his critics wrong and was undoubtedly one of the bargains of the season, having been bought by the Supergiants for his base price of INR 10 lakhs.

Tripathi's tally for the season totalled to an impressive 391 runs at a strike rate of almost 150. His intrepid batting style, and ability to give his team good starts make him a valuable asset to have.

#2 Prithvi Shaw

The youngster would be a great addition to any franchisee

Prithvi Shaw rose to prominence at the age of 14 when he set the record for the highest score by any batsman in any form of cricket by his jaw-dropping innings of 546 runs in a Harris Shield elite division match. Coincidentally this innings came just four days after the official retirement of the little master, Sachin Tendulkar.

"Less than a week after India bid its final farewell to the Little Master, the Master’s Apprentice conjured an innings of almost supernatural brilliance," wrote Howard Swains in a Freaky Good Futures profile of Shaw.

Shaw was enrolled in a cricket academy at the age of three and has been playing the game ever since. He scored a century in his debut Ranji Trophy match for Mumbai to deservedly bag the man of the match award. He also scored a century in his debut match in the Duleep trophy.

This is yet another parallel to Sachin Tendulkar, who had also scored centuries in his debut matches in both the prestigious national tournaments. For the Under-19 World Cup 2018, Shaw has been given the honour to lead the Indian side.

The youngster would be a great addition to any franchisee and he could become an integral part of the team for the next decade or more, just like Virat Kohli has been for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. His popularity in the auction could depend considerably on his showing at the Under-19 world cup.

#1 Krunal Pandya

In 2017, Krunal bagged 10 wickets at an economy of just 6.82

Hardik Pandya has established himself as the no.1 choice T20 all-rounder for India, and was retained by the Mumbai Indians as expected. However, it was unfortunate that MI didn't retain the elder Pandya for his extremely humble price tag of INR 3 crore price.

Krunal has accumulated more runs and bagged more wickets than Hardik in the IPL, despite playing only 25 games as opposed to Hardik's 37. He has one of the highest strike rates in the history of the IPL, close to 160. However, he is mature with the bat and can play a consolidating innings when required, as he rightfully demonstrated in his patient man-of-the-match winning knock of 47 in last year's grand finale.

In 2017, Krunal bagged 10 wickets at an economy of just 6.82.

MI will surely be looking to make amends by using the right-to-match card on him during the auctions. However, owing to his all-round prowess, Krunal is bound to receive an overwhelming response at the auction and be sold for a reasonably good sum of money.