IPL 2018: 4 overseas stars who may never be seen in the IPL again

Form and consistency are the most important factors for players to cement their place in the starting eleven. In a competitive league like the IPL, the players need to be at their very best to have any chance of representing their franchises. This is due to the fact that there is no compromise when it comes to the quality of cricket on offer in the IPL.

However good a player might be, there will always be a dip in form at some stage of their careers. Let us now look at the top International stars who once dominated the IPL, but will be overlooked for the upcoming editions. These players might have already played their last IPL season.

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Dwayne Smith

The Barbadian has represented four franchises in the IPL - the Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Lions. Smith is one of the few players to have played for the two most successful sides - the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. He has won two titles in his IPL career - in 2009 with the now-defunct Deccan Chargers and in 2013 with the Mumbai Indians.

An experienced T20 campaigner, Smith has played 76 IPL matches, scoring 2103 runs at a strike-rate of 134.20, with his highest score being 87*. He has 19 wickets to his name at an economy of 9.29 and is a handy medium-pacer. Smith has not been in good touch in the T20 matches he has played in various leagues recently. Already 35, he is unlikely to be preferred in the upcoming editions just like in this year's auctions where he went unsold at an enormous base price of INR 1 crore.

Shaun Marsh

Shaun Marsh

Marsh, who represented the Kings XI Punjab throughout his IPL career, is one of the very few players to have played for only one franchise during the first decade of the tournament. Marsh won the Orange Cap in the inaugural edition after scoring 616 runs in just 11 games. The Western Australian contributed consistently with the bat for the Kings XI in almost every season.

A solid top-order batsman, Marsh is an experienced campaigner when it comes to the IPL having scored 2477 runs in 71 matches at a strike-rate of 132.74. It was surprising to see him go unsold at this year's auctions at a base price of INR 1.5 crore. Already 34, the chances of the Aussie batsman playing in the IPL in the upcoming seasons look bleak.

James Faulkner

James Fa

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One of the best death bowlers in the IPL, Faulkner took the tournament by storm with his pace variations and toe-crushing yorkers. Though the Tasmanian represented four different franchises in the IPL so far - the Pune Warriors India, Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Lions - his stint with Rajasthan was his most successful one.

In the three seasons he played for the inaugural IPL champions (2013-2015), he scored 382 runs and took 47 wickets and was one of their key players. But after moving to the now-defunct Gujarat Lions in 2016 due to the two-year suspension of Rajasthan Royals, he failed to replicate his success.

He played just 15 matches over two seasons for the Rajkot-based franchise, picking up just 8 wickets. In 60 IPL matches, Faulkner has scored 527 runs at a strike-rate of 135.47 and has taken 59 wickets at an economy of 8.69, with his best figures being 5 for 16.

Faulkner remains the only bowler till date to have taken two five-wicket hauls in the IPL. His poor outing in the last two editions with the Gujarat Lions and an enormous base price of INR 2 crore certainly contributed to Faulkner going unsold in the 2018 IPL auctions. Also, the fact that he is not a permanent fixture in the Australian national team is a major cause for concern.

Eoin Morgan

Eoin Morgan

The current English limited-overs skipper has represented four different franchises in the IPL - the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. An experienced T20 campaigner, Morgan has played six seasons in the IPL. A hard-hitting batsman, the southpaw was a part of the KKR squad that won the IPL title in 2012, but did not get a chance to don the jersey that season. He won his second IPL title with the Sunrisers Hyderabad in season 9 (2016) under David Warner.

Morgan had poor outings in the last three editions of the IPL (2015-2017). In the last edition (2017), he played for the Kings XI Punjab where he managed to score just 65 runs in four matches. His continuous failures with the bat made him go unsold in this year’s auctions at a base price of INR 2 crore.

In 52 IPL matches, Morgan has scored 854 runs at a strike-rate of 121.13, with his highest score being 66. Morgan has scored four half-centuries and has 24 catches to his name in the IPL. Though he is in good form for the English limited-overs side, his enormous base price and prior struggles might very well keep him out of the next IPL editions.