The 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just two months away and the dates for the new season have been announced. IPL 2020 will start on 29th March and will end on the 24th of May. This time the duration will be more because there are very few doubleheaders.
This will be the 13th season of the Indian Premier League and if you look back at it, we still remember the first night when Brendon McCullum smacked that 158 off just 73 balls against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The IPL has just gone from strength to strength and it is now the biggest T20 league in the world.
In the Indian Premier League, we first time saw the idea of an orange cap being awarded to the leading run-scorer. Every year the leading run-scorer in the season gets the orange cap. But have you ever wondered who is the leading run-scorer in the whole IPL? Which batsmen has the most runs in the history of the IPL?
Let’s have a look at the top five run-scorers in the history of the IPL.
- Shikhar Dhawan – 4579 runs
Shikhar Dhawan has been in the IPL since its first season. Dhawan has been part of the three teams – Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad. The left-handed opener from Delhi has scored 4579 runs in 158 innings at an average of 33.42 and a strike-rate of 124.80.
His highest score in the IPL is 97*. He is one of the consistent openers of the IPL and he will give you almost 500 runs in each and every season. He is currently at No.5 on the list of leading-run scorers in the IPL.
- David Warner – 4706 runs
The left-handed opening batsman from Australia is one of the best batsmen to have ever played the IPL. He has a phenomenal record for whatever teams he has played. In 126 matches he has scored 4706 runs at an average of 43.17 and a strike-rate of 142.39.
He has 44 fifties to his name which is the most in the history of the tournament. In IPL 2016, he scored 848 runs in one season. He has single-handedly won matches for SRH. He is currently 4th on the list of leading run-scorers.
- Rohit Sharma – 4898 runs
The player who has won the most number of titles is at No.3 in the list of the leading run-scorers. Rohit Sharma, who has led Mumbai Indians to four titles has scored 4898 runs in 183 innings at an average of 31.60 and a strike-rate of 137.14.
He has scored 38 fifties and one century in the IPL. He can become the second Indian after MS Dhoni to hit 200 sixes in the IPL. In the last two seasons, he hasn’t been at his best with the bat so all the MI fans will be hoping that they see some classic Rohit Sharma performances in the upcoming IPL.
- Suresh Raina – 5368 runs
The left-handed batsman from Chennai Super Kings was known as Mr.IPL for a long time in his Indian Premier League career. Suresh Raina has been the face of the IPL for a number of years. CSK’s No.3 has scored 5368 runs in 189 innings at an average of 33.34 and a strike rate of 137.14.
Raina has never won the orange cap but still consistently at the top of the leading run-scorers list. Over the last couple of years, we haven’t seen the real Raina for Chennai, so let’s hope that in the upcoming season the original Suresh Raina is back at No.3 scoring a lot of runs.
- Virat Kohli – 5412 runs
There isn’t much difference between the No.2 and No.1 in the leading run-scorers but for the record, Virat Kohli is No.1 in the list. The Indian captain has scored 5412 runs in 169 innings at an average of 37.84 and a strike-rate of 131.61.
Kohli didn’t have the best of starts to the IPL as he struggled in the first couple of years. He picked up the pace from 2012 and then IPL 2016 happened. His numbers in that season were insane.
RCB’s captain scored 973 runs in at an average of 81.08 with a strike-rate of 152.03 with 4 centuries in one season. At one point, it seemed as if he would cross the 1000 run mark but just missed it by 27 runs. His 973 runs still remains a record for the most runs in a single season and it would be interesting to see if there is any batsman who can break this record.
NOTE: Stats updated before the start of IPL 2020
