Indian Premier League: As we all know the men behind the stumps are also an integral part of a cricket team and that too across the three forms of the game. The playing eleven isn’t complete without a wicketkeeper and nowadays the keepers also bat well for their teams. Some keeper batters also open the innings for their countries.
Indian Premier League: History
In the history of the Indian Premier League, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been hailed as the greatest wicketkeeper, batter, and captain of the Chennai Super Kings franchise. But he never won an Orange Cap in his IPL career as of now. Even the legendary wicketkeeper batters like Adam Gilchrist and Kumara Sangakkara too didn’t get the Orange Cap.
When we talk about other Indian wicketkeepers like Wriddhiman Saha, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson and Jitesh Sharma, they also missed out on a chance of being the Orange Cap holders of the Indian Premier League. In the history of this cash-rich league tournament, only two wicketkeeper batsmen have won the Orange Cap.
One player is from India while the other player is from England. In this segment of the Indian Premier League, we shall name those two wicketkeeper batters who have won the Orange Cap in this cash-rich league tournament. The qualifier two match will be played today at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai between Sunrisers Hyderabad Vs Rajasthan Royals.
Indian Premier League: 1 – Kannur Lokesh Rahul –
The wicketkeeper batter cum opener and skipper of Lucknow Super Giants, KL Rahul played for the franchise of Kings XI Punjab before he joined LSG in 2022. Rahul has been a good keeper batter in the Indian Premier League tournament so far and he can also play in the middle-order batting position as well.
He did a good job even as a middle-order batter in the ODI World Cup 2023. But in the Indian Premier League, KL has always opened the innings for both the franchise sides. Rahul was also the skipper of the Punjab Kings. In 2020, Kannur Lokesh Rahul became the first-ever wicketkeeper batter from India to get the orange cap.
Even though Punjab finished sixth on the points table and didn’t qualify for the playoffs, that edition is still being remembered for the dominance of KL Rahul. The opener batter, wicketkeeper and captain of the Punjab side, Rahul scored 670 runs in just 14 Indian Premier League games. He had also amassed the highest individual score of 132 runs against RCB in that edition of 2020 when the whole IPL was played in UAE during the time of COVID-19.
Indian Premier League: 2 – Jos Buttler
The current T20 World Cup-winning captain of England, Jos Buttler will miss the qualifier two match for Rajasthan Royals today. Royal Buttler is with the England team for the T20 International series against Pakistan. RR will certainly miss Jos the Boss in a crucial match today and in the finals as well if the Royals beat SRH.
Buttler had a season to remember in the Indian Premier League 2022 season. Rajasthan Royals also qualified for the finals for just the second time and today they will aim to reach that position again. Jos Buttler is just the second wicketkeeper to be awarded the orange cap two years back. He scored 863 runs from 17 games in that Indian Premier League edition of 2022.
Buttler scored 4 centuries in a single edition of the Indian Premier League, which is the joint most with Virat Kohli, who also scored four tons in IPL 2016 when his side reached the finals of that edition. But both, Rahul and Buttler didn’t win the titles for their franchise teams despite the heroics with the bat in hand.
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