The former RCB medium pacer Harshal Patel, who won the purple cap in the IPL last season, has rated the CSK skipper MS Dhoni as the greatest captain of all time and has also said that the former Indian captain is his cricketing idol.
It’s a slightly surprising statement from Harshal because he has never played under Dhoni’s captaincy. Two of the IPL teams that Harshal has played for are Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and it was through his performances last season for RCB that he came into the limelight.
Harshal Patel is now an India international in the shortest format of the game and will be one of the players to watch out for in the upcoming IPL mega auction. His slower balls and other variations resemble his bowling to the bowling of the West Indies veteran Dwayne Bravo.
It’s the subtlety of Harshal’s slower deliveries which is hard to pick for any batsman around the world. If there is a little bit of purchase in the surface and the ball is gripping or stopping, then Harshal becomes even more lethal with his variations, but even if there is no purchase, it’s the way he changes the pace of the ball with minimum change in his release, he can deceive the batsman on any kind of surface.
CSK might bid for Harshal Patel in the upcoming mega auction of IPL
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) might be one of those teams which bid for Harshal in the upcoming mega auction because they always prefer a change-up bowler in their ranks and with Bravo getting into the twilight of his career, it’s most likely they will look for a bowler who can serve them for a length of time.
With Harshal also saying, in an interview with Crictracker, that MS Dhoni is his cricketing idol and CSK is the team he wants to play for, it might be the start of an association between the player and the franchise.
What’s impressive about Harshal is that apart from offering all the quality that he offers with the ball, he can also be a handy batsman. Not only can he bat lower down the order, he has also been used as a pinch hitter at the top of the order by his stateside Haryana. He can be a very useful allround package for CSK in the coming years, if CSK indeed manages to secure his services in the mega auction.
