Back without a run: Most ducks by a player in history
One of the biggest and successful T20 franchise cricket extravaganza, Indian Premier League (IPL) has been a witness to a plethora of batters smashing boundaries and maximums and making a global statement. However, there have been instances when the batsmen have gone back to the pavilion without contributing anything to the scoreboard. Getting out on a duck is more prominent in the shortest format of the game as the batters don’t have time to settle down and read the pitch. They have to start hitting from the very first ball and sometimes in an attempt of doing the same they lose their wicket.
Though no batsman in the world wants his name up in the list of most ducks, there are many surprising names who are dominating the race of scoring most ducks in the Indian Premier League. The veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is topping the said charts with 13 ducks to his name in 88 innings. He is followed by the wicket-keeper opening batsman Parthiv Patel and Delhi Capitals swashbuckling batsman Ajinkya Rahane. Both Parthiv and Ajinkya have 13 ducks in 137 innings respectively.
Harbhajan and Parthiv have not featured in even a single match of ongoing IPL 2020 as the former pulled out his name from the tournament citing personal reasons while the latter didn’t get a chance in the playing XI of Royal Challengers Bangalore. Rahane, on the other hand, scored a duck two times in 8 fixtures.
The Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma also registered himself at the top of this list along with the three aforementioned players while playing against DC in the 1st Qualifier of IPL 2020. Rohit bagged a golden duck to make this unpleasant record as now he has 13 ducks to his name in 194 innings in the T20 Championship.
The fifth spot in this list is acquired by Chennai Super Kings ace-spinner Piyush Chawla who went back to the pavilion for 12 times in 81 innings without contributing anything to the scoreboard. Kings XI Punjab’s Mandeep Singh, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Manish Pandey, the Super Kings’ Ambati Rayudu and former Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Gautam Gambhir match Piyush Chawla’s 12 ducks in the list of most ducks in the Indian league.
While Mandeep, Piyush, Manish and Rayudu are an active part of the cash-rich league and have played 81, 91, 133 and 151 innings respectively in the tournament, former Indian opener Gambhir has retired after featuring in 154 IPL games.
