Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttler has been in supreme form in the ongoing IPL 2022. The lack of depth in the RR batting line-up – with R Ashwin slotted in at number 7 – has often been masked by Buttler batting long and batting hard in most of the matches.
The Englishman is the current Orange Cap holder -and is likely to be that way till the end of the season with KL Rahul 167 runs behind him – and has so far scored 618 runs in 11 innings at an average of 61 and strike rate of 152. Buttler has thumped 3 centuries and 3 half-centuries yet in the tournament. Fans believe that the RR opener can even break Virat Kohli’s epic 973-run season from 2016.
Jos Buttler creates new IPL record for Rajasthan Royals
On Saturday, Buttler played a sizzling cameo versus Punjab Kings, laying the foundation for RR’s chase of 190. He smashed 30 runs off 16 balls, including spanking Kagiso Rabada for 25 runs from 11 balls, and gave RR a rapid start.
En route to this 30-run knock, Buttler crossed the 600-run mark for the season. Not only this is his ever IPL best, but Butler also became the first-ever Rajasthan Royals batsman to aggregate over 600 runs in a single IPL season.
He surpassed Ajinkya Rahane as the top-scorer for RR in a season; Rahane had scored 560 runs for RR in 2012 with Buttler holding the second spot earlier with 543 runs in the 2018 edition of the competition. Buttler was retained by the Royals ahead of the 2022 season for 10 crore.
Speaking about the game, it was young Yashasvi Jaiswal who emerged as RR’s top scorer on this return to the eleven following being dropped after three failures at the start of the season. Jaiswal scored 68 runs off 41 balls while the likes of Buttler (30 off 16), and Sanju Samson (23 off 12) scored quickly around him.
After which Devdutt Padikkal (31 off 32) played the anchor role while Shimron Hetmyer (31 off 16) finished off the run-chase. Sitting in the third place, RR have 14 points in 11 games and are close to sealing a playoff spot.
