IPL 2014: Five valuable overseas players - Predictions

Dwayne Bravo (Chennai Super Kings)

Dwayne Bravo

One of the things I like about the current skipper of the WI limited-overs team is his ability to adapt between formats. Because he happens to be an all-rounder, his usefulness rises to incredible proportions for his side.

You can accuse the Chennai outfit of keeping the same faces in the squad for all of the editions of the IPL till date, but skipper MS Dhoni’s logic can hardly be faulted: he has a penchant for keeping seam-bowling all-rounders in the side. In a lightning-paced format, such players are a boon to any franchise, and Bravo has repaid his leader’s faith in full.

I’d like to see him bowl a lot of slower deliveries – his weapon of choice against free-flowing exponents of the willow – and a few short ones too. His nagging accuracy often drives rivals crazy; they don’t know whether to hit or graft when he comes on for a spell. That’s just the way Bravo sets up his victims.

A master of the Nataraja stroke and a clean striker of the ball, Bravo can accelerate in the latter stages without too much fuss. He also has the amazing ability to find the gaps a la Jayawardene – usually square of the wicket. I expect that he would certainly make this IPL edition his own, and steer the yellow brigade to a record third title.