KPL 2018 | Five Bulls to look out for this season
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The seventh edition of the KPL is scheduled to start today and the Bijapur Bulls will look to win a second KPL trophy as they lost the finals to Belagavi Panthers last year. We are looking at five pivotal players from the Bull's 2018 squad who will be vital if they want to win the KPL in 2018.
Mir Kaunain Abbas
A new addition to the Bijapur Bulls squad, Bangalore-born Mir Kaunain Abbas burst onto the domestic stage in 2013 as he was Jain University's top scorer with 313 runs and player of the Tournament in their successful Toyota University Cricket Championship. He was later chosen to replace the injured Robin Uthappa in the Syed Mushtaq Ali squad for Karnataka.
Abbas has been a consistent performer in the domestic circuit ever since he made his Ranji Trophy debut against Jharkhand with scores of 51 and 55. The Bulls battled it out with the Hubli Tiger's for Abbas’ signature as the former ultimately signed the batsman for a sum of Rs. 3 lakhs. Abbas will be a vital cog in the middle-order and will look to provide cover for skipper Chipli over the course of the tournament.
Bharat Chipli
Bijapur Bulls took a calculated risk when they appointed Bharat Chipli as captain before the start of last year’s Karnataka Premier League. Although the team got off to a rough start, they recovered well later on and made their way to the finals under the leadership of Chipli.
The 35-year old batsman led from the front with some crucial knocks across the course of the tournament, which also included a quickfire 63 off 35 against Bellary Tuskers. In the 20 first-class matches that Chipli has played in, he has amassed a total of 1128 runs at an average of 37.60. In T20 matches, Bharat has scored 453 runs from 30 games at a decent average of 21.57. He will be pivotal for the Bulls this season as they will look to their leader to guide them a second triumph in the KPL which they narrowly missed out on last year.
KP Apanna
A Karnataka-lad through and through, Kotarangada Prabhu Appana has established himself as one of the key performers for the Bijapur Bulls ever since their victorious triumph in the 2015 season. Apanna, along with Cariappa, picked up three wickets in the final back in 2015 against last year's winners - Belagavi Panthers as the Bulls lifted the KPL trophy that year.
The 29-year old specialist slow
Naveen MG
Gneshwar Naveen is a 24-year old right arm medium pacer who hails from Mandya in Karnataka. The youngster was one of the four players to be retained by the Bijapur Bulls for the upcoming season of the Karnataka Premier League. Prior to the tournament, Naveen was the costliest player at this year's auction for the third edition Manguluru Premier League. He was picked up by the Udupi Strikers for a sum of Rs. 75,000 for MPL-3 which starts in December.
Naveen recently starred in KSCA secretary XI’s shock win over Chattisgarh where he ended the match with figures 4/72. He has previously played for the Mysuru Warriors as well and will provide skipper Bharat Chipli with some good options in the middle-overs for the upcoming season.
KC Cariappa
20-year old Konganda
The young spinner who hails from Coorg has been in the limelight for his deceptive bowling action which made it difficult for batsmen to read him. At 5 feet 11 inches, Cariappa bowls with an orthodox round-arm action. The leg break is his stock ball, and he has variations like the googly and the faster one which helped him pick up 11 wickets in last year's KPL as he ended the league as the third highest