It’s no secret that the T20 format is favorable to batsmen than bowlers. There are games where teams get bundled out for the 70s, 80s, and 90s but invariably if the batting line-up clicks then a 180 or 200 is given nowadays. The grounds have become smaller, bats thicker and batsmen have become bolder to take any kind of attack on. Traditional cricket shots have been replaced with unorthodoxy and these days a batsman is an all-around 360 degrees’ player.
In this sort of game environment, batsmen like Virat Kohli have gone onto the pile on 973 runs in a single season with 4 centuries. A foreign superstar who was not a first-choice pick, like Williamson, got a humungous 735 runs in the 2018 season. With this kind of unimaginable season, the benchmark has been set at 400 runs in a season.
A player is considered to have a good season if he is able to notch 400 runs in a single season. We look at the top 5 players who have got the most number of 400 runs or more in a single season.
1. Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina has been a legend of IPL and can most likely be called “Mr. IPL” for his record of playing all matches for CSK from 2008 to 2016 and then continuing back with them from 2018. He has had 9 IPL seasons where he has scored 400 or more runs. 2013, where he scored 548 runs, is his best season with the bat.
2. Shikhar Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan is a highly underrated batsman when it comes to T20 and IPL. Not many people realize but he has been a consistent performer wherever he has played. He has got 400 or more runs in a season 8 times in his IPL career. As a youngster, he had a fantastic start in 2008 with 340 runs and he has gone upwards from there. In 2020, while playing for Delhi he scored 618 runs and was instrumental in taking them to the finals. In the ongoing season, he has already amassed 422 runs.
3. Virat Kohli
It is not possible to speak of batting records and not have the king of Indian cricket to feature on it. The captain of RCB and their most important cog has scored 400 or more runs in season 7 times in his IPL career. His landmark year was 2016 when he went on a rampage and clocked nearly 1000 runs. That season he scored a century with stitches on his hand. 2013 and 2018 also were glorious years for him where he notched more than 530 runs.
4. Rohit Sharma
Nowadays it is not very easy to keep Sharma away from Kohli. The two stars have matched each other in the last few years on every count. With Sharma doing exceedingly well in tests, the difference is very little between the two. Sharma, too, has scored 400 or more runs in season 7 times in his IPL career. Sharma has been Mumbai Indians best talent and has the record of scoring of 350 or more runs in every season of the IPL barring 2018 when he had an off-season.
5. David Warner
This list was getting purely dominated by Indians but Warner comes with the foreign representation. Warner has been an IPL role model for a lot. He inspired confidence in SRH, made fans believe that they could win, and ensured he delivered both as a captain and batsman for the franchise. He has scored 400 or more runs in season 7 times in his IPL career. Warner had a slow start in IPL but ever since he took over the captaincy of SRH, there has been no looking back. His 2014-2019 seasons read 528, 562, 848, 641, and 692. In 2016 when he scored 848 runs, SRH won the trophy.
