IPL 2019: 3 New Zealand pacers to watch out for

The 12th edition of IPL, IPL 2019, is less than 2 weeks away. The tournament will begin on March 23rd, and the first match will be played between the defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

T20 is widely known as a batsman’s game. But we know that a team with a reasonable bowling attack can perform just as well as a team packed with batsmen.

If we look at the bowlers of the past editions, we can see that 10 out of the 11 Purple Caps have been won by pace bowlers and 6 of them by overseas bowlers. But we haven't seen a single New Zealand bowler in the list, even though the Kiwis have a good number of fast bowlers.

None of the Kiwi bowlers has succeeded in making a huge impact in any of the editions of the IPL till now. On that note, let us look at 3 Kiwi fast bowlers to watch out for in this edition of the IPL.

#3 Lockie Ferguson (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Lockie Ferguson is a 27-year-old pace bowler from Auckland. He made his ODI debut in December 2016 against Australia, and the month after that he made his T20I debut against Bangladesh. In the latter match, he took two wickets with his first two deliveries, becoming the second player to do so.

But Ferguson truly came into the limelight in late 2018, when he picked 6 wickets from 2 matches in the ODI series against Sri Lanka. Then he also picked 11 wickets from 3 matches in the ODI series against Pakistan.

Ferguson has picked 46 wickets from 27 ODIs and 10 wickets from 5 T20Is. In first-class cricket, he has picked 149 wickets from 41 matches at an average of 24.65.

He came into the IPL with a base price of 1 crore and he was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders for 1.60 crore. He is known for the pace he generates with the ball and for his deadly bouncers. He usually bowls at 140-145 kmph.

It will be interesting to see how he performs in Indian conditions.