Call of duty: Overseas players leave IPL midway for World Cup

Rajasthan who have not been in top form this season will be hit by a setback of four players leaving before the playoffs.

England stars Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer will be gone in their remaining three games along with their in-form newly appointed captain Steve Smith.

Mumbai will also be affected by the national duty call up of the foreign players.

They lose four of the most valuable players of their squad.

While big hitter Quinton de Kock will be missed for their batting abilities, the pace attack will be affected due to Lasith Malinga and Jason Behrendorff being gone.

One match wonder for Mumbai, Alzarri Joseph has been ruled out due to an injury. 

Hyderabad will be hugely affected by the loss of their explosive opening pair of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow.

Warner will join the Australian training camp and Bairstow will join English camp. 

Warner and Bairstow, who have been the most successful openers of this season can lead to major worries when they are gone as the team is dependent on them for bulk of runs. 

Virat Kohli-led Bangalore, who have recently found a bit of form in their last three matches will lose their star all-rounder Moeen Ali who has been lethal lower down the order. 

Another huge setback would be Dale Steyn, who has been ruled out of the IPL due to an injury having played only two matches for the team. 

Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis will also leave to join the Australian training camp for the ICC World Cup 2019. 

Kolkata who have not been successful this season despite having the firepower of Andre Russell will surely miss him when he's gone along with big hitter Carlos Braithwaite. 

Russell who has been the most valuable player this season will be a big setback for Kolkata as he's been single handedly winning games for them. 

Table toppers and defending champions Chennai will have to fill in the shoes of Proteas duo of opening batsman Faf du Plessis and wrist-spinner Imran Tahir who will be gone for the World Cup preparations. 

Punjab team, which started their campaign on a high with the help of big hitting by the universe boss Chris Gayle, will be hit by his unavailability for their bid to book a playoff berth. 

Gayle will be gone due to his World Cup call-up for the Windies. 

Delhi have shown tremendous form this season with solid batting and bowling attacks. 

While their batting won't be a worry, the bowling will be hit by the loss of their ace bowler Kagiso Rabada who has been winning matches for them with his top notch death bowling abilities. 

He will join South African camp ahead of the cricket World Cup.