Dubai: Who will get to wear the Orange Cap for the top batsman when the Indian Premier League (IPL) season gets over? With Kolkata Knight Riders’ Robin Uthappa consistently scoring well, it’s now a two-horse race between him and Kings XI Punjab’s Glenn Maxwell, who had the early headstart.
Uthappa’s unbeaten 83 against Royal Challengers Bangalore put him ahead of Maxwell by 39 runs (as of Thursday). Maxwell has notched some big scores but Uthappa’s forte has been his consistency. In his last eight innings, Uthappa’s lowest score is 40.
The KKR batsman’s consistency since stepping into the opener’s role has been a major factor behind his team’s revival, who have now won six matches on the trot to make the play-offs.
It was former Indian Test player Pravin Amre, Uthappa’s batting coach, who instilled the confidence in him to outshine Maxwell, who started off with a string of huge scores during the UAE leg of the tournament. Amre told Uthappa to always aim to bat until the 18th over and, each time he did, he ended with a good score. Interestingly, by the seventh or eighth overs, he has been on song — producing a wide array of cricketing shots.
Uthappa has been training with Amre since 2012 and made Mumbai his base for cricketing reasons. Apart from scoring heavily in the domestic circuit for Karnataka, Uthappa followed Amre’s advice in the Twenty20 format — strengthening his basics — and it’s showing in this IPL.
It was way back in April 2006 that Uthappa made his One-Day International debut with a knock of 86, but has not often lived up to his promise in the years since. He also played a pivotal role in India’s victory in the 2007 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 Cup.
After playing in the 2008 Asia Cup final, he never got selected for one-day matches. He also played his last Test match against South Africa at Johannesburg in 2012. Uthappa continued to perform impressively in the IPL for Pune Warriors, who bought him for $2.1 million (Dh7.71 million), becoming the second most expensive player in the 2011 auction.
During the fifth and sixth editions of the IPL, he scored over 400 runs for Pune despite his team’s unimpressive performance. However, with his classy and consistent show as an opener in the seventh edition, a recall to the Indian team suddenly does not look that far away.
