Overseas players who would be heavyweights in IPL 2020

From hard hitters to all-rounders, almost all the Indian Premier League (IPL) teams have a strong unit of non-Indian players who have been key game changers in the past IPL seasons.

After following various COVID-19 protocols of their region or late travel to UAE as they were representing their national sides in international tournaments, the overseas players have started joining their respective contingents in the UAE.

Here are a few overseas players who would be the biggest game-changers in IPL 13:

Faf du Plessis

The South African batting hurricane, Faf du Plessis, has finally joined the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) squad on Tuesday. His arrival at Dubai will surely be a big breather for the skipper MS Dhoni after Suresh Raina pulled out of IPL 2020 citing “personal reasons”.

Faf may be the game-changing option for CSK, however, the proteas batsman has not played any competitive cricket since March due to the lockdown. CSK had used the Right-To-Match (RTM) card to retain the right-hand batsman after Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) bought him for Rs 1.6 crore at the IPL Mega Auction in 2018.

He will join the CSK squad in nets after the mandatory isolation as per UAE norms. He will also have to test negative twice for COVID-19 in a gap of 24 hours.

Dwayne Bravo

Yet another CSK all-rounder, popularly known as DJ Bravo, the all-rounder will be a huge support for the skipper Dhoni. Bravo is capable of hitting some huge sixes and at the same time play a finisher knock as well, which may be much required for the Chennai-based franchise.

After Raina’s exit, CSK’s batting order might see some changes and if MS Dhoni decides to bat up in the order, the middle order’s responsibility might fall on the shoulders of Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja.

David Warner

In the entire period of COVID-19 lockdown, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner kept the SRH fans entertained by tapping feet on the popular Telugu songs on Instagram.

Now, when the stage is finally set for the real challenge in UAE, all eyes of the SRH fans will be on their skipper David Warner to get the IPL 13 trophy for the team.

The left-hander from Australia has scored 4,706 runs in IPL so far in 126 matches, which includes four centuries, his highest score being 126.

Steve Smith

Rajasthan Royals will definitely look forward to going a long way in the IPL 2020 gig under the leadership of one of the best batsmen of the world, Steve Smith. So far in 81 IPL matches, Smith has scored 2,022 runs.

After winning the inaugural IPL season, Rajasthan Royals have never even been able to make it to the finals of the cash-rich league.

While the Royals try to win the league this year, all eyes will be on Smith and his ability to change the course of the game single-handedly.