From the very beginning, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been as much about the impact of big power-hitters as it has been about unveiling talent. The tournament also produced some of the brightest foreign stars who went on to represent their nation on the back of their good run in IPL. The tournament significantly helps the Indian stars and uncapped batsman alongside big international names to discover new aspects to their game. Each and every season of the previous 10 editions of the cash-rich league has seen a lot of batting stars put up power-packed performances for their franchises. Ben Stokes in 2017, Virat Kohli and David Warner in 2016 and many other players have lit up the tournament in a grand manner in every season. Digitalsporty shortlists top 5 batsman to watch out for in IPL 2018
5: Steve Smith (Rajasthan Royals- 15 Crore)
Australian captain will now gear up for a successful IPL season as a batter as he stepped down from captaincy following his main role in shameful ball-tampering incident in 3rd test against South Africa. The number 1 test batsman in the world has piled heap of runs in recent while, becoming Australia’s run machine in middle order.
Smith started his IPL journey with RCB in 2010, he later moved on to Kochi Tuskers Kerala, where he didn’t play a game. 2012 proved to be a turning point in Smith’s IPL career as he scored 365 runs in 15 matches at a healthy strike rate of 135.58, playing for Pune Warrior India. This performance opened door for his selection in Australian team as a complete batter. He joined Rajasthan Royals in 2014-15, then later moved to Rising Pune Supergiant as the Jaipur based franchise was sacked from the tournament following fixing allegations.
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He was the prominent reason why a low lying Rising Pune Supergiant got inspired from his performance to make it to the finals of the IPL 2017, where they lost to Mumbai Indians in a crunch final.
Smith will make a return to the Royals outfit and it will be interesting to see if the man from Sydney can cope up with the expectations and deliver for the franchise when he has went through so much of media and political pressure in recent while.
(Click on 2nd page from below to see other 4 batsman)
