'Can break the back of opponent': Aakash predicts promising 29-year-old star as most expensive IND bowler in IPL auction

The bowler is neither Harshal Patel, who was the Purple Cap winner of the 2021 season, nor was it Shardul Thakur.

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra made a massive prediction on Monday, saying that neither Harshal Patel, nor Shardul Thakur, but a promising 29-year-old star will become the most expensive Indian bowler in the impending mega auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL).

Aakash Chopra (Instagram)

Harshal was the Purple Cap winner of the 2021 season, having picked a record 32 wickets for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). However, the pacer, who broke into the Indian team on the back of that impressive season, wasn't even retained by RCB. Shardul, on the other hand, has developed the skill of picking wickets when teams needed it the most, be it Chennai Super Kings (CSK) or Team India, and of late has shown his prowess with the bat as well, scoring two half-centuries in the series against South Africa earlier this month.

However, Aakash feels Harshal won't cost that much, while he did not mention Shardul in his list of top-five most expensive Indian bowler, which included Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Rahul Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal with Deepak Chahar sitting atop.

“Firstly, he takes wickets with the new ball. There isn't any Indian of this kind. You can think of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi...I didn't even go with Harshal Patel, despite him picking 32 wickets last season to win the Purple Cap. But I feel probably he won't cost that much,” he said on his YouTube channel.

Aakash feels that Deepak is a one of a kind powerplay bowler, who can hand you early wickets and has shown the ability to bat as well, as seen in the South Africa ODI series. Aakash predicts that every franchise will go after this bowler at the auction which will take place on February 12 and 13.

“Deepak is you bank in the first three overs. He can come and give you early wickets in the powerplay. There is nothing better than that. He can break the back of the opponent. In death overs, he is alright, not great. But that can work. I feel CSK will try to get him back once again. Ahmedabad and Lucknow will also try. Every franchise will try to get him in their team. And he has started batting as well,” he said.

Chahar made his IPL debut in 2016 for presently-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants before being picked by CSK in 2018. However, the franchise had released the pacer ahead of the 2022 auction with CSK retaining MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad.