IPL 2018 Auction: 5 South African players to watch out for

South Africa has been the powerhouse of some of the greatest cricketing talents in the world.

South African cricketers have always been loved for playing attacking cricket. The nation has produced some of the best fielders in the world and their acrobatic fielding is a delight to watch.

AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Herschelle Gibbs, Dale Steyn, Chris Morris and David Miller are some of the greatest South Africans to have played in the IPL.

The Indian crowd has always supported the South Africans like one of their own players. Currently the Indians are on a long tour of South Africa where the home team is leading the 3 match Test series 2-0.

The Proteas are grabbing eyeballs for their splendid performances in the ongoing tournament. Most of the South African players are on the role and awaiting to start bidding war in the auction next weekend.

#5 Faf du Plessis

The captain of the South African team across all formats will be a preferred captaincy picks for the IPL franchises who will be looking for a captain. Du Plessis has enough of experience now after captaining South Africa in T20s for close to five years now.

He has an above average record in the IPL, scoring 1295 runs in 53 matches at a strike rate of 127.96. In the last season, playing for Rising Pune Supergiants, du Plessis did not get many opportunities and could manage to score just 8 runs from 2 outings.

He is the only South African batsman placed on the marquee list of players in the auction.

With a base price of Rs. 1.5 crores, he is sure to start a bidding war when his name comes up at the table.

#4 JP Duminy

The mighty all-rounder from South Africa has been out of the international cricketing action for a while now as he has retired from Test cricket and only plays limited overs cricket for the country.

JP Duminy has been a crucial member of the Delhi Daredevils team but missed the last IPL as he pulled out due to personal reasons.

Currently, Duminy is playing for Cape Cobras in a List A domestic tournament where he is showing his form scoring tons of runs for his team. Recently he was in the news for scoring 37 runs off an over in a match. JP Duminy is another good captaincy pick who may be on the wishlist of the team owners.

#3 David Miller

David Miller has been a mainstay in the King XI Punjab den over the years. The hard-hitting batsman first came into the limelight in the 2013 edition of the tournament where he collected 418 runs from 12 matches at a staggering strike rate of 164.56. He scored an unbeaten ton of just 38 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Mohali and was praised for his batting skills.

David Miller smashed the fastest T20 international ton last year when he scored a 35 ball T20 ton against Bangladesh at home. Later Rohit Sharma equaled his record scoring a ton in as many balls against Sri Lanka.

Miller was not retained by the Punjab team owing to his poor performances in the past two seasons, but the Kings XI Punjab franchise owners would be keen to retain him using the Right to Match card.

#2 Kagiso Rabada

The 22-year-old fast bowler has been doing wonders ever since he made an emphatic ODI debut against Bangladesh in 2015, where he took a hat-trick and ended up taking six wickets in the match. The South African bowler has evolved fast and he is one of the few bowlers in the world at present who can clock 150 kmph.

The in-form Rabada is leading the pace attack in the ongoing series against India and is surely grabbing eyeballs of the franchise owners. He was bought by Delhi Daredevils in the last season where he took 6 wickets in 6 matches and scored some crucial runs for the franchise.

Though he was not retained by the Delhi side, the franchise owners must be definitely looking to keep him using RTM.

#1 Hashim Amla

The South African batsman is known for doing more than he speaks. Amla shockingly went unsold in the IPL auction 2016 after no franchise showed interest in him. Cricket skeptics had the impression that Amla was not a batsman made for T20s.

He was later roped in by Kings XI Punjab as a replacement for the injured Shaun Marsh. Amla silenced the critics after scoring a brilliant 96 of 56 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Mohali.

In the following year, he was bought by the Punjab team where he showed his class, scoring 420 runs in just 10 matches at a strike rate of 145.83 and an astonishing average of 60.00. He scored two tons and two fifties in the season.

Even after such a wonderful show for the Kings XI Punjab, he has not been retained ahead of the IPL auction and it looks like Punjab has made a big mistake not retaining him. The South African batsman will be a hot pick in the auction.