Robin Uthappa

Picked up for his aggressive style of batting, Uthappa burst onto the scene with a swashbuckling 86 against England in 2006. He was rewarded for his talent and was included in the squad for the ICC World Cup 2007 which ended as a debacle for the team. 

As the world moved to the inaugural T20 world cup in 2007, Uthappa got another chance to stamp his name in the Indian lineup for a long time. Uthappa’s knock against Pakistan in the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup played a crucial role in India’s victory against their arch-rivals. 

He became the first Indian to score a fifty in a T20 international match. He built on the gains made in the 2007 World T20 in the series in Australia where he batted at different positions but did not fail to impress.

However, a dip in form along with the emergence of other young players meant that Uthappa lost his place in the team. Although he made a comeback later in 2014-15 but inconsistency continued to haunt him and he again lost his place to never earn it back again.

After being picked by Mumbai Indians in the inaugural IPL season in 2008, Uthappa proved his mettle and scored 320 runs in the season. Surprisingly enough, he was let go by the team and he moved to his home team RCB where he continued until IPL 2011. Uthappa found his best IPL form during his days with the KKR where he became one of the mainstays of the KKR batting setup and helped the team in winning the title twice in 2012 and 2014. Since IPL 2012, he has racked up 405, 434, 660, 364, 394, 388, 351,282 in the seasons preceding the IPL 2020. He was criticised heavily for his conservative approach in the 2020 IPL season and presumably, the franchise let him go before the IPL 2020 auction for the same reason. Rajasthan picked him up for Rs 3 crore banking on his class and exploits at the top of the order and Uthappa disappointed his fans yet again scoring just 196 runs in 12 appearances. Rajasthan Royals released Uthappa before the start of the 2021 edition of the IPL on the back of a poor season.

Returning back to the domestic circuit, Uthappa scored heavily in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy. His 54 balls 91 powered Kerala past Delhi in a memorable run chase in the Syed Ali Mushtaq Trophy. Uthappa scored 377 runs in 6 matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy which included two centuries and he looks to be in deadly hot form at the moment. Back of an impressive show in the domestic premier tournaments, Uthappa was traded to Chennai Super Kings before the start of 2021 IPL.

Playing for his sixth franchise in the IPL, Uthappa would be looking to bolster the top order of CSK after a fallout by the IPL giants in the last season. After a disappointing last season, he would hope to provide the flavour of Shane Watson which they have been missing from the past couple of seasons.

(As of March 2021)