IPL 2019: 3 Caribbean veterans to watch out for
The 12th edition of IPL will begin on March 23. The first match will be played between the defending champions Chennai Super Kings and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
IPL is undoubtedly the biggest T20 league in the world. Coming to the shortest format of the game, arguably Caribbean players are high in demand than any other players. West Indies have already won two T20 World Cup titles -- 2012 and 2016. This year we have a bunch of IPL debutants from the West Indies which includes Shimron Hetmyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Nicholas Pooran and Oshane Thomas. The big name who went unsold in the auction is Jason Holder. In the past editions, Caribbean players have already bagged 2 Orange Caps, 2 Purple Caps and 4 Most Valuable Player titles.
On that note, we will look at 3 Caribbean veterans to watch out for in this edition of IPL. The players are shortlisted, based on their performances which resulted in a winning cause.
#3 Dwayne Bravo (Chennai Super Kings)
35-year-old Bravo is a cricketer from Trinidad. He is an aggressive batsman in the lower middle order and a medium-pace bowler. He is known for his death bowling and his ability to bowl at various lengths. He is a street smart cricketer with both the bat and the ball.
Bravo retired from Test cricket in 2015 and he announced the retirement from international cricket in 2018. But he is still active in various T20 leagues across the globe. In the recently-concluded Big Bash league, he had an average outing with just 15 wickets from 14 matches and scored 142 runs with the bat.
In IPL, he has been a part of Chennai Super Kings from 2011 onwards, except that in 2016 he represented Gujarat Lions. Bravo won the Purple Cap in 2013 and 2015. In IPL, he has picked up 136 wickets from 122 matches and has scored 1379 runs at an average of 23.77.
He is expected to bat at No:7 for CSK and to bowl in the middle and death overs.