Over the years, we have seen a lot of great batsmen playing in the Indian Premier League and scoring huge amounts of runs for their respective franchises. Here, we are focusing on the elegant 5 Left-handers who have scored the most runs in IPL History
#5 Gautam Gambhir
Fifth on the list is Gautam Gambhir who has scored 4217 runs in the competition with an average of 31.23. Despite not being a part of IPL for the last three seasons, Gambhir has still managed to make it to the list. The left-handed opener began his career with Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in 2008 and scored over 500 runs in his first season itself. He made significant contributions to the franchise in the next 2 seasons as well before moving to Kolkata Knight Riders in the mega auction of 2011.
He was also appointed the captain of the team. His KKR stint was very successful as he led the franchise to two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014. He also contributed to more than 3000 runs for KKR in 7 seasons. In 2018 which was his last IPL season, he was released by KKR. Delhi Daredevils got his services yet again that year, but he failed to live up to the expectations of the franchise and only accumulated 85 runs in 6 matches.
#4 Chris Gayle
Termed by many as the ‘Universe Boss’, Chris Gayle is next on the list with 4950 runs, striking at the rate of 149.4. He began his career with the Kolkata-based franchise in 2009 but due to two below-average seasons, he was released by them ahead of the 2011 auction. Royal Challengers Bangalore picked him in their squad in 2011 and that was Gayle’s breakout season in IPL. He helped RCB reach the final of the tournament. He was the top run-scorer in the league in his debut season after scoring 608 runs.
During his time at RCB, he broke various records in the league. However, in his last couple of seasons, his performances declined, which saw him getting released by RCB. He moved to Kings XI Punjab (Now Punjab Kings) in 2018 and has been a regular feature in their team to date. Unfortunately, he is the only batsman in this list to have never won an IPL trophy.
#3 David Warner
The next batsman on the list is the Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper, David Warner. The Aussie has scored a total of 5447 runs averaging 42.22 runs every inning. He debuted in IPL with Delhi Daredevils in 2009 and served the franchise for 5 seasons. In 2014, he was picked by SRH and was appointed their captain in 2015. Warner’s best season was arguably 2016 where he managed to score frequently in the tournament, combining for a total of 848 runs that season.
He also led the franchise to an IPL trophy and also played a heroic knock in the final. He missed the 2018 season for obvious reasons, but came back stronger in the next two seasons. David, no doubt, has been one of the most consistent players in the league.
#2 Suresh Raina
Famously known as ‘Mr. IPL’, the aggressive left-handed batsman who has spent his most years in the Chennai-based franchise is the 2nd leading run-scorer among lefties. He has been part of the IPL since the first season. Till 2020, he was the only player in the history of the league to have scored more than 300 runs every season. During the 2016 and 2017 seasons, he played for Gujarat Lions since CSK were suspended. In 13 seasons, Raina has scored a huge sum of 5491 runs striking at the rate of 137.
He has won the IPL thrice in 2010,2011, and 2018 has contributed significantly in all those seasons. Apart from being an excellent batsman, he is an outstanding fielder as well and holds various records in terms of fielding too.
#1 Shikhar Dhawan
The top run-scorer among lefties in the history of IPL is none other than the Delhi-boy Shikhar Dhawan. In his IPL career, he has scored a massive 5577 runs averaging over 35 runs per inning. He has played for 3 franchises since the inception of the tournament. He started off his IPL career with Delhi Daredevils in 2008 where he managed to score 340 runs that season. However, prior to the 2009 season, he was traded to Mumbai Indians in exchange for the left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra. Shikhar represented Mumbai for two seasons before he was picked up by Deccan Chargers in the 2011 auction.
He scored a decent amount of runs for the Chargers as well but after the abandonment of Deccan Chargers in 2013, he moved to the new Hyderabad-based franchise, Sunrisers Hyderabad. The lefty played for SRH for 6 seasons. He also won an IPL trophy in 2016 where his contributions to the franchise were of great value and only second to his captain, David Warner. In 2019, Dhawan returned to Delhi Capitals (previously Delhi Daredevils) and has piled up a lot of runs since then as he tops this list of 5 Left-handers who have scored the most runs in IPL history.
