Few rare things happened for the very first time in Indian T20 League 2022
Ravindra Jadeja-Jos Buttler-Virat Kohli (Image Source: BCCI/IPL)
The Indian T20 League 2022 has reached its conclusion with the debutants Gujarat emerging as the champions. We saw some great performances in the tournament and were enthralled by the on-field excellence of the players in the tournament. A few things happened in the tournament which was never seen earlier in the history of the tournament.
Here is a list of a few events that occurred for the first time in the Indian T20 League 2022.
1000 sixes: The Indian T20 League saw 1000 sixes being hit for the first time in the history of the tournament. A total of 1054 sixes were hit in the tournament, the most in any ITL season. The previous best was 872 sixes in 2018.
The first ITL match played at the World’s largest Cricket Stadium: The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India is the largest cricket stadium in the world at present. It has a capacity to hold 1.32 lakh spectators. Qualifier 2 of the Indian T20 League 2022 between Rajasthan and Bangalore was the first match to be ever played in the grand arena.
An overseas player scoring four hundreds in a season: Jos Buttler was in a dream form with the bat in hand in the Indian T20 League 2022. He scored 863 runs in the tournament at an average of 57.53 and a strike rate of 149.05. He also scored four centuries in the season and equaled the feat that was achieved by Virat Kohli in 2016. This incidentally was the most number of centuries scored by an overseas player in one season of the Indian T20 League. Previously this feat was shared by Chris Gayle (2011), Hashim Amla (2017), and Shane Watson (2018) hitting two centuries in their respective seasons.
Ravichandran Ashwin Retired out: In a league stage match against Lucknow, Ravichandran Ashwin retired out after scoring 28 runs off 23 balls. His decision was to allow Riyan Parag to come out and increase the scoring rate of the team in the later phase of the innings. Although the cricketing world has witnessed this incident take place before, this was the first time a batter retired out in Indian T20 League.
Hardik Pandya leading a team: Gujarat franchise included Hardik Pandya as one of their three draft players along with Shubman Gill and Rashid Khan. Cricket experts and fans were surprised when Gujarat announced Pandya as the skipper of the team. No one believed that Gujarat would make it far in the tournament under Pandya’s leadership. But silencing his critics Hardik led the team from the front delivering in all the aspects of the game throughout the tournament. He delivered with the ball and the bat even in the finals and led his team to a win in the finals of the tournament against Rajasthan. Gujarat won their maiden ITL title in their debut season in the tournament.
