IPL 2019: 5 Players who could be playing their last season
The 12th edition of the most popular T20 league - the IPL is all set for an early kick-off this year (March 23). Much to the delight of the fans across the globe, the BCCI assured that the 2019 IPL will be held in India in spite of the Indian General Elections.
The tournament was moved out of India twice earlier, with the second edition (2009) being held in South Africa and the seventh edition partially in the United Arab Emirates with the remainder playing out in India.
With the 2019 World Cup fast approaching, several top players like Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Starc decided to withdraw ahead of the auction. Several young Indian as well as overseas players like Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Dubey and Sam Curran who bagged lucrative contracts at the auction held at Jaipur on December 18th, 2018, are all set to make their IPL debuts this year, while a few might appear in the league for one last time.
Let us now look at five players who could play their last IPL in 2019.
#5 Murali Vijay (Chennai Super Kings)
Team India's Test opener had a horrid time with the bat last year, managing just 282 runs in 15 innings at an average of 18.80. Murali Vijay was expected to be released ahead of the 2019 IPL auction but that wasn't the case.
The three-time winners retained the experienced campaigner, who hasn't been able to regain his Midas touch with the willow. A star performer during the initial years of the IPL, Vijay left Chennai Super Kings after the 2013 IPL and joined the Delhi Daredevils for season seven (2014).
The following year, he joined Kings XI Punjab (2015-2017) before returning to his home-franchise last season for ₹2 crore. He played only one game for Chennai in which he managed just 12 runs and was left out of the team for the rest of the games as Ambati Rayudu and Shane Watson were ruthless at the top, thereby making it tougher for Vijay to break into the XI.
Though it is saddening to see a player like Vijay struggle in the tournament he once reigned supremacy in, the Tamil Nadu star who will turn 35 on April 1st is unlikely to feature in the next edition of the IPL given his recent failures with the bat.