IPL is the kind of tournament where players keep getting transferred from one team to another because that’s the nature of the tournament. The way it has been designed, no team can retain more than 5 players after a 3-year cycle which is followed by a mega auction. So, the players are not guaranteed to play for a certain team forever.
There have been only 14 players so far in the history of the IPL who have played 100 or more games for one particular franchise. Let’s have a look at them –
Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians are one of those franchises which have been able to maintain a core group of players despite having to go through mega auctions after every three years and the fact that they have a strong core group is the reason why they have won more IPL trophies than any other team.
Mumbai Indians have had five players who have played 100 or more games for them and that include their current captain Rohit Sharma (143 games), their two former captains Kieron Pollard (148 games) and Harbhajan Singh (136 games) and their two other key performers in the past Ambati Rayudu (114 games) and Lasith Malinga (122 games).
While Rayudu and Harbhajan are not in the Mumbai set-up anymore, they have played huge roles in the title winning campaigns of Mumbai Indians in the years gone by. Both of them are 3-time IPL winners with Mumbai Indians.
Chennai Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings are another team after Mumbai Indians which believe in the theory of having a solid core group and they have had that solid core group over the years.
The former Indian captain MS Dhoni himself has been with CSK since its inception and has played a total of 160 games for the franchise, but apart from him, the former Indian middle order batsman Suresh Raina and the left arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja have also played more than 100 games for CSK.
Raina has, in fact, played more games for CSK than Dhoni. The 33-year old has represented the men in yellow in 164 games and has scored 4527 runs with 32 fifties and a hundred.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders were not a stable team in the first three years of the IPL, but their fortunes changed when Gautam Gambhir took over as captain in 2011. Gambhir led KKR to two IPL titles in a space of 4 years. Till the time Gambhir was in charge at KKR, he had also built a very strong core group there.
While Gambhir himself played 108 games for KKR, Yusuf Pathan and Sunil Narine were the other players who represented the franchise in more than 100 games. Narine still remains a part of the KKR squad and will feature for them in the upcoming IPL in UAE.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore have chopped and changed quite a bit in the last few years, but the duo of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers has remained a constant. Even though RCB has not performed collectively as a team, the individual performances of Kohli and De Villiers have been second to none.
While Kohli is RCB’s all time highest run-scorer with 5412 runs in 177 games, De Villiers is at no. 2 with 3724 runs in 126 games. They are the only two players who have played more than 100 games for RCB till date.
Rajasthan Royals
Ajinkya Rahane is the only player from Rajasthan Royals who has played 100 games for them. He completed his 100 games in the last game of the last season before he was traded to Delhi Capitals.
Rahane scored 2810 runs in the 100 games that he played for the Royals, averaging 34.27. The right-handed opener scored 17 fifties and a couple of hundreds as well.
