Indian Premier League has always been a very good stage for a player to showcase his talent. Right from the first season IPL has made an influence in international cricket. Players like Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja are the prime examples of the success that IPL has been. All these players were struggling to make an influence for their national side and IPL-1 brought them into the lime light.

IPL has always played a big role in selection of an Indian team. People like Manpreet Gony, Sudeep Tyagi made debut for India based on their performance in only one season. Though these players were not able to make an impression but there have been others who are a permanent face in the team. R Ashwin is the bowler who emerged from this competition and is has been the number one spinner for India in the recent past.

Shaun Marsh emerged from IPL and was selected into the Australian national side on the basis of his performance in India.

Every year there are players who make their name in this competition and even this some players have evolved. Let’s have a look at some of the players who have made a terrific use of the opportunity that they got and will be hard to avoid when their national team will leave for Sri Lanka for T20 world cup.

Ajinkya Rahane (Rajasthan Royals): Rahane is an established player in the domestic circuit, but failed to deliver the goods when he played for India in England. He did play some attacking innings but threw his wicket away in most of the situation. As a result he lost his place from the national team. Rahane would have known that IPL is a great platform to rise again and he has done exactly that. Rahane has scored 541 runs in the 14 matches that he has played and the best thing about his runs has been the way he has scored them. He has played some orthodox cricketing shots and still has scored his runs at a brilliant pace. It will be very hard for the national selectors to avoid his name for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Sunil Narine (Kolkata Knight Riders): He made an impression when he played in the Champions League and that earned him a heavy contract with KKR. People were questioning that whether he deserved so much money or not, but no one will question the decision now. Narine has been the most economical bowler in IPL-5 and also has taken 15 wickets. He has deceived every batsmen that came his way and no batsmen till now has been able to pick him properly. Narine was in the West Indian team before the tournament started and he will be a certainty in their T20 World Cup squad. Narine is still young in his bowling career and will get a lot of confidence in the way he has bowled to some of the world class batsmen in this IPL.

Steven Smith (Pune Warriors): People in Australia have always rated him very highly and that was the reason he played in an Ashes Test. Smith has been in and out of Australian squad and he was in desperate need of some runs to make a comeback to the side. Pune gave him that opportunity and he has not looked back since then. Smith has been the best batsman for them and he is the reason why Pune is not at the bottom of the table. His 362 runs have come at a strike rate of 136. He has displayed immense composure in the tensest situation and that might just buy him a place in the Australian squad for the upcoming world cup.

Faf du Plessis (Chennai Super Kings): Just like Smith, du Plessis also struggled to have a continuous run with his national team. He was in and out of the side and most recently lost his place to Colin Ingram. There are at least two to three players who are fighting for one position in the South African team and du Plessis’ IPL performance might give him the edge. This talented South Agfrican has batted well in Chennai and the conditions in Sri Lanka will be almost similar, so he might just get a look in. Faf du Plessis till now has scored 385 runs and that includes some match winning performances.

By Gaurav Jha
Indian Sports News