IPL 2019: 3 Australian all-rounders to watch out for

IPL 2019 is set to begin on March 23, and the excitement levels are slowly starting to build up. All the players are gearing up for the mega event, and those include both Indian players and overseas ones.

ng the overseas players, Australians have been always an integral part of IPL. The first edition of IPL was won by Rajasthan Royals, captained by Shane Warne - the only team led by a non-Indian captain in that edition. In the past 11 editions, Australian players have bagged 5 Orange Caps, 1 Purple Cap and 4 Most Valuable Player titles.

The 12th edition of IPL has 12 Aussie players on-board, of which 11 players have already played in the previous editions of IPL. 8 players went unsold in the auction which includes big names like Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja and Daniel Christian.

In this article, we will look at 3 Aussie all-rounders to watch out for in this edition of IPL.

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#3 Ashton Turner

Ashton Turner is having a good run in BBL so far

Ashton Turner, 26 years old, plays for Western Australia. He is a right-handed batsman who bats in the middle order and bowls off-spin.

Turner has represented Western Australia at U-15, U17 and U-19 levels. He made his T20 international debut in 2017 against Sri Lanka, and although he couldn’t do much with the bat, he had a decent outing with the ball - picking up 3 wickets.

Turner is currently representing Perth Scorchers in the ongoing BBL, and is performing well. So far he has scored 378 runs from 13 innings, averaging 34.36 with a strike rate of 133.10. In his T20 career, he has taken 1132 runs at a strike rate of 139.75 and has picked up 17 wickets.

Turner entered the IPL auction at a base price of 50 lakh, and Rajasthan Royals bought him at that price.

In a team consisting of players like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer, it would be difficult for Turner to find a spot in the playing XI. But he will definitely have his chances once Stokes and Butler leave for their World Cup preparations.

#2 Marcus Stoinis

Stoinis will play for RCB in IPL 2019

Marcus Stoinis, 29 years old, is now a permanent member of Australia’s limited overs side. He is a right-handed batsman who bats at No: 6 and is also a medium pacer.

Stoinis' bowling is very effective in the death overs. At the same time, he is a very destructive batsman, and has also played the anchoring role on occasion.

Stoinis is currently playing for Melbourne Stars in the ongoing BBL. He has until now scored 361 runs from 9 innings averaging 60.17 with a strike rate of.130.80. He has also picked up 14 wickets so far in this BBL.

However, his IPL records are not as good as his BBL stats. From 19 IPL matches, he has scored 262 runs and has picked up 13 wickets.

Kings XI Punjab traded Stoinis away for Mandeep Singh, with Royal Challengers Bangalore, ahead of the auctions. With the RCB team being packed with batsmen, an all-rounder like Stoinis promises to be a good acquisition.

#1 Shane Watson

Shane Watson has impressive IPL stats

After retiring from international cricket in 2016, the 37-year-old Shane Watson continues to play in various T20 leagues across the globe.

Watson was the Most Valuable Player in the 1st edition of IPL. He won this title agan in the 6th edition of the tournament. He has played for Rajasthan Royals (2008-2015), Royal Challengers Bangalore (2016-2017) and Chennai Super Kings (2018-present) so far.

Watson's IPL numbers are very impressive. From 117 matches he has scored over 3000 runs averaging 32.41 at a strike rate of 141.20, and has also picked up 92 wickets. He scored an unbeaten 117 from 57 balls in the IPL 2018 final and led CSK to victory.

Currently, Watson is playing for Sydney Thunder in BBL and has scored 329 runs from 13 innings so far.

Watson will open the batting for CSK this year too, and he will be looking forward to continuing his form in 2019.