The Indian Premier League (IPL) grabbed the attention of the masses in its very first game in the 2008 edition. The main reason behind it was the performance of a certain opener, Brendon McCullum.
The former Kiwi skipper scored a monumental unbeaten 158 while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the inaugural edition of the IPL. That knock of his against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on the 18th of April 2008 set the tone for what was to follow over the next decade.
From then on, the excitement for any IPL game remains high, and it highlights the importance of the impact openers (sometimes the opening pair itself) have on not just a T20 game but also the entire tournament. IPL has given us many big names; unsurprisingly, many are openers. They are the ones who can make a truckload of runs more often than the batters coming down the batting order.
So most batting records are held by the Openers, which is obvious to those who followed the game closely. At the same time, not everyone succeeded in that role, and only those who could adapt to different conditions prevailed.
Here are the top 10 batters who have scored the most runs as openers in the IPL.
Most Runs as Openers in IPL
| BATSMAN | RUNS AS OPENERS | INNS | AVERAGE | STRIKE RATE | 50s/100s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shikhar Dhawan | 6362 | 202 | 35.54 | 128.11 | 47/2 |
| David Warner | 5910 | 163 | 39.93 | 140.81 | 56/4 |
| Virat Kohli | 4900 | 125 | 47.11 | 139.12 | 38/8 |
| Chris Gayle | 4480 | 122 | 41.87 | 151.4 | 28/6 |
| KL Rahul | 4383 | 102 | 49.80 | 137.96 | 36/5 |
| Faf Du Plessis | 3981 | 118 | 36.19 | 137.41 | 35/0 |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 3685 | 126 | 32.90 | 122.06 | 24/2 |
| Gautham Gambhir | 3597 | 123 | 32.12 | 124.85 | 34/0 |
| Shubman Gill | 3589 | 95 | 41.73 | 139.81 | 25/4 |
| Quinton De Kock | 3300 | 114 | 31.13 | 134.41 | 24/2 |
Key Insights
6363: Shikhar Dhawan, one of India’s great white-ball ODI players, sits pretty at the top with 6362 runs as an opening batsman in the IPL. The left-hander consistently performed in the league and rarely failed in this hugely competitive tournament.
175: This is the highest individual score ever made in the IPL (check the top ten here), and it belongs to the Universe Boss Chris Gayle. The legendary West Indies opener is a pioneer in T20 cricket, and this knock of 175 while playing for RCB will forever be written in the folklore of amazing IPL stories over the years to come. This decade-long-standing IPL record of Chris Gayle may never be broken, and it will take a monumental effort from some batter to even get close to the mark.
8: Virat Kohli holds the record for scoring the most number of centuries as an opener in IPL history, and this is also the most by any batter in the entire IPL.
4: The number of centuries Virat Kohli and Jos Buttler scored in a single season of IPL as openers. While the champion Indian batsman Kohli created this feat in the 2016 edition of the IPL, Jos Buttler equalled the tremendous milestone by scoring four tons in the 2022 IPL season. In a coincidence, their respective teams, RCB and RR, ended up as runners-up in those seasons.
48: KL Rahul has the best average among the openers in the IPL, having scored over 2000 runs. The right-hander has been a run machine for the IPL and has scored over 4200+ runs at a decent enough strike rate of 137+ as an opener. Rahul has also smashed four centuries in his growing IPL career, and it might not be a surprise if he ends up the top run-getter in this already great list.
50: David Warner is the only player to score 50 or more half-centuries as an opener in IPL cricket. The Aussie legend is arguably the best-ever overseas batter to play the IPL, having already won any overseas batter in the IPL.
0: Gautam Gambhir and Faf Du Plessis are the only players in this coveted list not to have scored a single century as an opener in the IPL. Neither of them has made any centuries in the league. (Find out the 10 players with the most runs without scoring a century in the league.)
