Quantcast

Five IPL stars in form for Champions Trophy

Three batsmen, a paceman and an allrounder all looking in ominous form ahead of the June ICC ODI tournament

We're 22 matches into IPL10 and already we've seen a host of standout performances from some of the world's biggest stars.

This year, the lucrative T20 tournament also serves as a precursor to one of the ICC's major events – the Champions Trophy, which gets underway on June 1 in London.

Many of those to have shone in the IPL to date will be headline acts for their respective countries at the upcoming ODI tournament as well.

Here we've picked five of the IPL's most in-form players who we expect to carry on their purple patch in England.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Sunrisers Hyderabad, India)

IPL 2017 to date: 15 wickets in six matches. Best: 5-19. RPO: 5.70. SR: 9.6

Indian paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been head and shoulders above his pace-bowling contemporaries in IPL10, claiming three more wickets than his next rival at an astonishing rate of one wicket every 9.6 deliveries. He's conceding fewer than six runs an over to boot, and the 27-year-old swing bowler looks set to relish English conditions. In nine ODIs in England previously, the right-armer has taken 11 wickets at 24.63, conceding just 4.10 runs an over. India are yet to announce their squad but on current form, Kumar – despite a modest record in his 59 ODI career to date – looks set to be one of the first picked and could well be a leading light for his country in England.

Bhuvi takes five as Sunrisers beat Kings

Hashim Amla (Kings XI Punjab, South Africa)

IPL 2017 to date: 234 runs in six matches. Best: 104no. Ave: 58.50. SR: 141.81

Amla blazed 58no to take Kings XI to their second win of the season a couple of weeks back but the classy South African showcased his skills most spectacularly on Thursday night, creaming a maiden T20 hundred from just 58 balls to jump into third spot on the leading runs-scorers list. The Proteas genius might have lived in AB de Villiers' shadow at times but his ODI record is as good as anyone's in history, and he averages 60 in 12 ODIs in England. Interestingly, Amla is yet to fire in a Champions Trophy tournament, having played six matches without a hundred, but Proteas fans will rightly be expecting him to correct that anomaly in June.

Awesome Amla crashes maiden T20 hundred

David Warner (Sunrisers Hyderabad, Australia)

IPL 2017 to date: 239 runs in six matches. Best: 76no. Ave: 59.75. SR: 134.26

Warner will still be smarting from his below-par Test series against India recently but there can be little doubting the left-hander's white-ball form. The Australian scored an incredible 848 runs (the second-most in history) in last year's IPL and sits second on the runs-scorers list this time around. In ODIs, he has scored comfortably the most runs since the beginning of last year – his 1755 well clear of fellow Aussie Steve Smith (1,375) and including a remarkable nine hundreds. It will sting Warner that he's never made an international hundred in England – in any format. Expect that to change during the Champions Trophy.

Warner, Henriques post fifties in big win

Chris Morris (Delhi Daredevils, South Africa)

IPL 2017 to date: Bowling: 12 wickets in five matches. Best: 4-26. RPO: 6.61. SR: 9.0.

Batting: 74 runs in five matches. Best: 38no. Ave: 24.66. SR: 238.70

Allrounder Morris has been in sensational form with bat and ball, taking a wicket every nine deliveries with his pacey right-arm offerings and blazing a boundary every 2.58 balls he faces. He took 4-26 last time out, including the wickets of Warner and Kane Williamson. Given his current form, Morris looms as the first-choice allrounder ahead of Farhaan Behardien and Wayne Parnell in the Proteas best XI, and – dare we say it – could play a Lance Klusener type role for AB de Villiers' side. The 29-year-old has only played three ODIs in England, taking four wickets, but could finally stamp himself as a class international allrounder at the Champions Trophy.

Morris hammers Pune in spine-tingling cameo

Jos Buttler (Mumbai Indians, England)

IPL 2017 to date: 185 runs in six matches. Best: 77. Ave: 30.83. SR: 156.77

Buttler made a start in four of his first innings in IPL10 without ever passing 40. That changed dramatically on Thursday night when, with Mumbai chasing 199 against Kings XI, he blasted 77 from just 37 deliveries, with seven fours and five sixes. It was the sort of innings Buttler had been threatening all tournament, and the type on which he's built his reputation. The 26-year-old owns the record for England's fastest ODI hundred, from just 46 balls, and could be the host nation's game-breaker come June. Buttler has been instrumental to England rejuvenation as an ODI force following their 2015 World Cup disaster, and the Champions Trophy could well be coming at just the right time for the powerful right-hander.

Mumbai menaces make it rain sixes