IPL 2020: 3 uncapped players who can win the orange cap

Indian Premier League is the platform for the rising cricketers to gain the spotlight of the fans and the selectors, which, later on, can lead to their career growth as well as monetary advancement.

Over the years, many uncapped batsmen in the past like Manish Pandey, Ambati Rayudu, Mandeep Singh, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Manvinder Bisla have accompanied their franchises to dizzying heights. These players have been known to add some much-needed balance to their respective teams.

Let's take a look at those uncapped Indian players who can go on to win the orange cap in the upcoming season.

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#3 Devdutt Padikkal

Devdutt Padikkal is one of the Indian batting prodigies who can make it big in the future. The 19-year-old ended up as the leading run-scorer in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, tallying 580 runs in 12 games including a match-winning 122 off 60 balls against Andhra Pradesh. In these 12 matches, he slammed 33 sixes which was also the highest in the tournament.

Royals Challengers Bangalore acquired the Karnataka opener at his base price of INR 20 lakhs ahead of IPL 2019. Going by their team combination, RCB lacks Indian batsmen and apart from the skipper Virat Kohli himself, there are hardly any reliable options to look at. Devdutt Padikkal will lead the race of Indian batsmen to join the captain in the line-up and will play a significant role for them as the Bangalore-based franchise would want foreign players to strengthen their fast-bowling.

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Going by his current form, he will play a significant role for RCB and is one of the uncapped players who have the ability to win the orange cap in IPL 2020.

#2 Suryakumar Yadav

Yadav has transformed his IPL career since joining MI

Mumbai Indians are blessed to have a batsman of such calibre and flexibility that they can bank on him whenever the batting order needs to be modified. This characteristic of Suryakumar Yadav makes him a valuable player for the 4-time champions. The 29-year-old batsman has played 85 matches in his IPL career and scored 1544 runs at an average of 28, striking at 131 runs every 100 balls.

Though he played mostly in the lower middle-order for his earlier franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, MI has given him a fair share of batting to which he has responded well. Coming to the team combination, MI has plenty of top-order batters and finishers to play with but lack depth in the middle, which is a significant position for a batsman to guide his team to a stage where the finishers can step on the gas. Suryakumar Yadav has held that position for them and IPL 2020 will be no different.

The consistency that he has shown in recent times makes him an uncapped contender to win the orange cap.

#1 Nitish Rana

Rana will be an integral part of KKR set up in the forthcoming edition

Since his arrival in the Indian Premier League, Nitish Rana has been impressive and has been a regular member of his franchises. The Delhi cricketer has played 46 IPL games and scored over 1000 runs at a strike-rate of 134. He has also scored 8 fifties in the process, with a top score of 85.

In a considerably young IPL career, Rana has already been a crucial part of the batting line up for Mumbai Indians in his early days and Kolkata Knight Riders for the last couple of years. The southpaw is known to tonk the ball with his sheer strength and has the ability to read the game and play at different gears according to what the team needs.

The 26-year-old cricketer is expected to bat in the top 3 for Kolkata Knight Riders since the departure of Chris Lynn and Robin Uthappa opens up a spot there. He is likely to play a crucial role to guide his team to a decent total, thereby making him the top uncapped contender for the orange cap.