Indian Premier League, 2020 – Statistical Preview

The 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL), which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will kick off on Saturday almost five months after the scheduled start. The last year’s finalists, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings will be key in giving the much-needed hype to the big tournament by facing off in the opener. The Sheikh Zayed International Cricket Stadium will host the duel between the archrivals while the Sharjah Cricket Stadium and Dubai International Cricket Stadium been the other hosting venues.

Here are key stats and numbers that matter ahead of the 13th edition of the IPL:

0/5 – Mumbai Indians lost each of the five matches they played during the 2014 IPL in the UAE. MI also lost their first match of every season since 2013. The last time they won the first match of an IPL edition was in 2012 when they defeated CSK during the tournament opener.

1 – KL Rahul will be making his captaincy debut in the Twenty20 format in this IPL season. Rahul, thus far, has led a team in only one match in his professional cricket. He led India A team against England Lions earlier at the start of 2019 which the Indian side won by an innings margin.

4 – Yuzvendra Chahal conceded only four boundaries in the 19 overs he bowled during the UAE-leg matches of the 2014 IPL. Chahal was hit for three sixes and a four across the five matches where he had an economy of 5.32 while picking up seven wickets.

8-1 – The head to head record between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings across their last nine meetings in the IPL reads 8-1 in the favour of MI. In fact, the Mumbai Indians won each of their last five IPL games against the Super Kings.

30 – Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Sandeep Lamichhane are the leading wicket-takers in the T20 format in 2020 with 30 wickets apiece. Mujeeb played 24 matches and had taken a 4-wicket haul while Sandeep played only 23 and bowled five maiden overs in those.

54.43 – KL Rahul has a batting average of 54.43 in the IPL while representing the Kings XI Punjab. Across 28 innings for KXIP, Rahul amassed 1252 runs at a strike rate over 140 with 12 fifties and a hundred.

99 – Chennai Super Kings have won 99 matches in the IPL under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. Another win in this season will help Dhoni to become the first captain to win 100 IPL games for a single franchise.

192 – Virat Kohli has featured in 192 matches for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Twenty20 format thus far. Another eight appearances in this season will help Kohli become the first player in T20 history to feature in 200 T20s for a single team.

200 – The Indian Premier League awaits its first player to complete 200 appearances during this season. MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma are frontrunners to achieve the feat having played 190 and 188 matches respectively. Suresh Raina could have been the first had he not opted out from this season. The Southpaw featured in 193 IPL games till date which is the most by any player.

3271 – David Warner has amassed 3271 runs across 71 matches for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL at an average of 55.44 and a strike rate of 146.9. In this due course, Warner smashed two tons and 34 fifties for the Hyderabad franchise.

All these numbers of Warner came since the beginning of 2014. Warner’s tally is the highest for any player in this period despite him missing out on a complete season due to ban.

9972 – Chris Gayle has aggregated 9972 runs through boundaries in the Twenty20 format. He has struck 1026 fours and 978 sixes in his Twenty20 career thus far. Gayle needs another 28 boundary runs to become the first player to aggregate 10000 T20 runs via boundaries. In Twenty20 history, Kieron Pollard is the only player other than Gayle to reach 10000 T20 career runs till date.