Rajasthan Royals’ opening batsman Jos Buttler is in form of his life in the ongoing IPL 2022. The English batsman has scored four centuries and four fifties in the season so far. In the final against Gujarat Titans, Buttler scored 39 runs in 35 balls with the help of five boundaries. With this innings, he broke the record held by David Warner. Buttler becomes a batsman with the second-most runs in a single season in the history of IPL.
In 2016 playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Warner scored 848 runs. The Australian hit nine fifties in the edition. Riding on his batting heroics, SRH won the title. In the same season, Virat Kohli scored 973 runs with the help of four hundred and seven fifties. RR’s Buttler overtook Warner in the list.
Jos Buttler in IPL 2022
Matches – 17
Runs – 863
100s – 4
50s – 4
SR – 149.05
AVG – 57.53
Earlier, RR skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bat first against GT in the title clash of the Indian Premier League 2022, in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The Titans could have a significant psychological edge in this contest having won against the Royals in the first qualifier en route to the final. Add to that the expected full house in their own backyard at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad with a world-highest capacity of 132,000, and the Titans could easily run out the firm favourites.
On the flip side, if there is one man who on his own can switch the narrative on his team’s side, it’s Jos Buttler. It was his record-equalling fourth century of the season in Qualifier 2 that dashed RCB’s hopes of making it to the final. And yet again, the Englishman will be the key lynchpin at the top for the Royals.
At the time of toss, Sanju Samson said: “We will bat first. Looks like a good wicket, a bit dry and that’s why we’ll bat first, it’s a used wicket and might help our spinners in the second innings. We’re all positive and excited. Playing in front of this crowd is exciting. Same team for us.”
While Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya said: “We would have bowled first. This is fantastic to see so many people coming to support us. We have the opportunity to be a hero and this is the time for us.”
“People of Gujarat are very loyal, very excited for it. We have one change – Lockie Ferguson comes in place of Alzarri Joseph,” Hardik added.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Obed McCoy, and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade, Hardik Pandya(c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal, and Mohammed Shami.
