IPL: 5 overseas players who might never be released by their franchises

The IPL 2020 Auction is set to be held in Kolkata on the 19th of December, 2019. The trade window, on the other hand, will be closed for all franchises on the 14th of November. As of now, we have seen only one trade go through, between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals.

Leg spinner Mayank Markhande made a move from Mumbai Indians to Delhi Capitals and DC gave Sherfane Rutherford in return to MI.

With the auction not far off now, the teams must have put their think tanks to figure out which players would be the best fit for their side and who they could let go.

However, there are certain players which might end their IPL career in the very team where they are playing currently. This article takes you through the list of overseas stars who might never leave their current teams.

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#5 Sunil Narine

Sunil Narine has been with the KKR team for a long time now

Kolkata Knight Riders have held on to Sunil Narine despite the player being suspended multiple times for suspected bowling action and they continue to reap rewards for the same. He opens the batting now and goes bang-bang right from ball one. Not to forget, his four tight overs that remain his strength where batsmen still struggle to pick him.

Narine has a total of 360 scalps in T20s, making him the second-highest wicket-taker in the shortest format of the game. This sort of experience is not very easy to replace these days.

Narine has been playing for the Kolkata franchise since he made his IPL debut way back in 2012. There is a thin chance that KKR will part ways with this talent they have nurtured for so long. It won't be surprising if Narine ends his IPL career with the team where he started things off.

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#4 Steve Smith

Steve Smith will continue to be the skipper of RR in 2020 as well

Steve Smith has been with the Rajasthan Royals since 2014. In 2016 and 2017 though, when Rajasthan Royals were suspended from the IPL, Smith played for the Rising Pune Supergiants.

In 2017, Smith captained the Pune side despite the presence of MS Dhoni. Under Smith, Pune finished runners-up. This made Royals retain Smith for their comeback season in 2018. He was also announced captain of the Royals in 2018.

However, in 2018, Smith got a one-year ban for ball-tampering and missed the IPL. This forced Royals to go with Rahane as their skipper.

After serving the ban, Smith made a comeback in the IPL in 2019. However, the Royals decided against making him the skipper and stayed with Rahane as their leader. But Rahane's bad form meant that Royals had to move back to Smith as their skipper towards the end of the 2019 season.

Overall, Smith had a pretty good comeback season as he made 319 runs in 12 matches. He is all set to captain the Royals in 2020 as well, and might even go on to play for the Royals till the very end of his IPL career.

#3 Kieron Pollard

Kieron Pollard has always donned the blue and gold in the IPL

Kieron Pollard has been the name synonymous with Mumbai Indians. Right since the start of his IPL career, he has been with this side. After a lukewarm season in 2018, the big man from the Carribean was back to his hard-hitting ways for the MI as he scored 279 runs at an astounding strike-rate of over 156.

He was also one of the RTMs used by the Mumbai Indians in the big auction of 2018. The big man has been the vice-captain of the MI side, who takes over in the absence of Rohit Sharma. In one such match in 2019, he scored 83 runs and led the team from the front.

He is 32 years old and still very much a live-wire in the field. That combined with his clean-striking and his presence on the field, Pollard does make for a compelling buy. As of today, there seems to be no way that Mumbai Indians would let Pollard go. He will, by all means, be seen in with MI till the very end of his IPL career.

#2 Andre Russell

Andre Russell is surely going to be a part of the KKR for at least another 2 years

Another hard-hitting all-rounder from the Carribean, Andre Russell was a man of mission in the 2019 season of the Indian Premier League. Every year, he scored runs and took wickets. But in 2019, he took the hitting power to another level, where he won matches for KKR from a position where a loss looked inevitable.

For a middle-order batsman who was yet to score 350 runs in a single season of the IPL, Russell scored a total of 510 runs in 14 innings of IPL 12, with an unbelievable strike-rate of 204.8.

No wonder he was the Most Valuable Player of the season. There is no way he will be released by the Kolkata Knight Riders for at least a few more years. Not to forget, he also bowls. He took 11 wickets during the season in 2019.

If he keeps the fireworks going for another couple of years, Russell will potentially end it in KKR itself.

#1 David Warner

David Warner has been among the most consistent players of the orange army

David Warner has been one of the most consistent players in the history of the Indian Premier League. Except for 2018 where he did not play due to his ban, Warner has been constantly scoring over 500 runs in each season since 2014. Since 2014, Warner's strike-rate has also never gone below 140.

In 2016, when his team Sunrisers Hyderabad won the IPL under his captaincy, David Warner led from the front with 848 runs at an average of over 60. In 2019, David Warner marked his comeback to IPL in style as he scored 692 runs in just 12 innings at an amazing average of 69.2.

He has been SRH's top choice player for the last 3-4 years and his current form is only going to make his case stronger with great performances of late in T20Is.

We will surely be seeing Warner at the top of the order for SRH next year. And unless there is a serious drop in his performance, Warner could remain a mainstay for the Orange Army, for the rest of his career.