5 English cricketers who have never played in the IPL but could have done well
The 2020 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) is just a few months away, and the fans are eagerly awaiting another season of cricket's grandest carnival.
Over the years, several international stars have associated themselves with the IPL. However, English cricketers were often unavailable for large swathes of the tournament, because their international schedule usually coincided with the IPL window. Because of this, the franchises rarely showed interest in the small bunch of English cricketers at the auction.
Very few players from England played in the early seasons of the IPL, but over the last few years, this trend has started changing. Their board is now focusing more on the T20 format, which is why England are one of the most dominant teams in limited overs cricket at the moment.
While a majority of the big T20 players from England have been a part of the IPL in the recent past, the following 5 players could have done well had they received an opportunity.
#5 Ian Botham
Former English Test skipper Ian Botham is widely regarded as one of the finest all-rounders of all time. He was the cornerstone of the English Test and ODI teams; although he achieved more success in the longer format, he was quite handy in 50-over cricket too.
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The fans would best remember him for his destructive spell of 4/31 against Australia in a group stage match at the 1992 World Cup. Botham played 116 ODI matches where he amassed 2,113 runs and scalped 145 wickets. His strike rate of 79.10 shows that he could hit the ball a long way too.
Because of his sharp cricketing brain, he could have been a solid captaincy option for the IPL teams too. However, Botham bid farewell to the cricket world before T20 cricket was born.