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Robin-Uthappa
The Rajasthan Royals have declared batsman Robin Uthappa's trade to Chennai Super Kings for the upcoming 14th edition of the Indian Premier League. The wicket-keeper batsman had joined the Rajasthan based franchise ahead of the 2020 season. RR picked Robin Uthappa in the IPL 2020 auction for Rs 3 crores. He featured in 12 games and managed to score 196 runs. The 35-year-old had an unfortunate campaign for the team, with 41 as his highest score.
Speaking on the transfer, Robin Uthappa stated that he enjoyed his time at the Royals and was very happy being part of this franchise. He mentioned that he is now excited for the next part of his cricketing journey joining CSK for the upcoming season.
The Rajasthan Royals also confirmed the decision of releasing one of their star players Steve Smith. He was leading the team in the previous two seasons. However, the team management has decided to hand over the captaincy to Sanju Samson for the upcoming season. The administration had to take a tough call as they had a disappointing 2020 season in UAE. The Royals finished at the bottom of the IPL 2020 standings despite starting the season with two consecutive wins.
Chennai will be Uthappa's sixth franchise in IPL
Robin Uthappa first played for Mumbai Indians in the inaugural season of IPL. He had a reasonable opening season with 277 runs at an average of 34.62. The batsman was the Orange Cap winner in 2014. Uthappa will now be playing for his sixth IPL franchise. The batsman played for the Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Pune Warriors India, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals. Overall, Uthappa has played 189 IPL matches and amassed 4607 runs at an average of 27.92, including 24 fifties.
In the second year of the tournament, he was replaced by Zaheer Khan at MI and moved to the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He played there for two seasons. However, he failed miserably, and the franchise released him. For the 2011 edition of IPL, the Pune Warriors picked him and he aggregated 839 runs at an average of 26.21. After the franchise's failure, Robin was then bought by Kolkata Knight Riders franchise for the 2014 season.
The Chennai Super Kings needed an opener after Shane Watson confirmed his retirement in November last year. The new changes in the group can see Robin Uthappa open the innings for Chennai Super Kings along with Ruturaj Gaikwad.