IPL 2018: 5 Indian cricketers who will be missed this year

#2 Praveen Kumar

Praveen Kumar also made valuable contributions with the bat

The right arm medium pacer from Meerut bowled the first ever delivery in the IPL history to the former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly in 2008 at Bengaluru. Praveen Kumar represented the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first three editions of the IPL.In 2010, he took a hattrick while playing for the RCB against the Rajasthan Royals at Chinnaswamy stadium, which happened to be the only hattrick of the third season.

Thereby, he became the seventh bowler to take a hattrick in the IPL. Praveen played for the Kings XI Punjab franchise from 2011-2013 and then moved to Mumbai Indians in 2014 as a replacement to the injured Indian pacer Zaheer Khan. The Sunrisers Hyderabad bought Praveen Kumar for the 2015 edition after he had been released by the Mumbai Indians prior to the eighth season auctions.

He played just one season for the Hyderabad franchise before representing the new entrants Gujarat Lions in the 2016 and 2017 editions. Praveen has also made valuable contributions with the bat, down the order. In 119 IPL matches, he has scored 344 runs at a strike-rate of 109.20, with his highest score being 34. In bowling, he has taken 90 wickets at an economy of 7.72, with his best figures being 3/18. The Uttar Pradesh player went unsold in this year’s IPL auctions in January, with a base price of INR 50 lakh.