Harshal Patel was one of the finds of IPL 2021. He had probably the best IPL campaign of his career last season and also won the Purple Cap award quite comfortably. He was by far the very best bowler in the entire tournament last season and netizens were thus shocked to see that he was not retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore – even when they had a spot available !
The mega auction of IPL 2022 was earlier set to be held at Bengaluru on 12th and 13th February but it has been shifted to a different venue and a different date due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in India. This is a blessing in disguise for the IPL franchises as they will be getting further more time to think about their available options.
Any franchise would love to get the services of Harshal Patel but in this article we will be listing down 5 such teams who will be really looking forward to securing his services for the next few years.
- Royal Challengers Bangalore – Whatever would have been the case between RCB and Harshal Patel, it was definitely some financial issue because otherwise they would not have let him go for free. The bowler probably did not want to be their 4th retention and therefore they decided to let go of him. They will surely go all out to get him back in the mega auction.
- Mumbai Indians – With Trent Boult out of the equation, Mumbai Indians need a fast bowler to support Jasprit Bumrah. As Trent will be difficult to get, The 5 times IPL winners might keep Harshal Patel as their backup option in case they do not land up with a world class international face.
- Sunrisers Hyderabad – Sunrisers Hyderabad has always had the most lethal pace attack in the Indian Premier League but they lost that status last season with the downfall of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the injury of Thangarasu Natarajan. With Natarajan and Bhuvi out of the equation, SRH might want to put Harshal Patel alongside Umran Malik in their pace attack.
- Delhi Capitals – Harshal Patel earlier used to play for Delhi Capitals before joining Royal Challengers bangalore. It was at DC that Harshal Patel started to be a regular member of the Playing XI. The pacer might reunite with his former club in the Mega auction.
- Lucknow Franchise – Both Lucknow and Ahmedabad Franchises are blank canvases so far. We do not know anything about these teams yet but we have an idea that Lucknow might just want to add Harshal Patel in their squad. But why is it so? Well Gautam Gambhir is the mentor of the Lucknow Franchise and we all know very well how big an admirer Gambhir is of Harshal Patel. For former Indian player always had words of high praise for him last season while commentating.