5 players with most runs in their IPL career
The IPL, since its start, has got viewers from all around the globe. Among all the franchise-based T20 tournaments, the IPL is no doubt the most followed and watched tournament in the world.
T20 cricket is basically about entertainment, with batsmen scoring quick runs and constantly trying to find boundaries, and bowlers attempting to knock down the stumps more often than in longer formats. Today, we are going to look at 5 players who have made the most IPL runs.
At the time of writing this article, Steve Smith has crossed 1000 runs in his IPL career. For the sake of accurate information, we are considering matches played before 17th April 2016.
Being among the top run-scorers in any form of cricket requires not only scoring very often but also playing often. If a player scores a lot but does not play too many matches, he cannot be among the leading run-getters in any tournament. This is one of the reasons that most of the top run-scorers in the IPL are from India.
Let us start the list with the fifth highest run-scorer in IPL cricket.
Chris Gayle – 3,200 runs
Chris Gayle, the Carribean beauty, with all his height, power and aggression, is on number 5 in this list. Gayle is the only player on this list who is not leading a side this season and is not an Indian. The southpaw has taken only 82 innings to score 3200 runs at an amazing average of just under 46. In fact, he is the only batsman in IPL history to feature in top 5 of both lists- most runs and highest averages.
Chris Gayle also holds the record for the highest score in an IPL game with 175 not out against Pune Warriors in the 2013 season. He has an impressive strike rate of 153 and has struck 230 sixes in IPL- by far the most for any player.
Gayle is the only player to score 3000 or more IPL runs at a strike rate of 150 or more. With many more games to come, the big Jamaican is a potential threat to top 4 players in this list especially Virat Kohli who is on number 4.