Jos Buttler’s magnificent hundred – his second of the season – in an IPL 2022 match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, earned him the tag of ‘world’s best T20 player’ from former England captain Michael Vaughan. Buttler is currently the orange cap holder for being the leading run-scorer of IPL 2022 so far and has been in some superb touch for the Rajasthan Royals. Vaughan’s huge comment, however, perhaps were not only because of Buttler’s IPL form.
The England wicketkeeper-batter has had unbelievable numbers in T20 cricket for close to a year now. Since the start of the T20 World Cup in October last year, Buttler averages 80.5 cricket in the shortest format of the game while maintaining a strike rate of 154.43.
“Best T20 player in the world @josbuttler #Fact #IPL2022,” tweeted Michael Vaughan.
Buttler, who has so far scored 375 runs in just 6 matches, slammed 103 off 61 balls against KKR on Monday to power the Royals to 217/5 – the highest total of the 15th season so far.
Opening the batting, the right-hander hit fives sixes and nine boundaries in a staggering display of strokeplay.
Some of Buttler’s shots were just out of the ordinary, including one off Umesh (0/44 in 4 overs) which landed into the adjacent tennis courts of Cricket Club of India.
When he finally got out trying to hook Pat Cummins (1/50 in 4 overs), Royals had crossed 180-run mark and by then the Australian Test captain was hammered for as many as seven fours and a six, bulk of them by the dashing England keeper-batter.
Buttler added 97 runs for the opening wicket stand with Devdutt Padikkal (24 off 18 balls), who only faced deliveries worth three overs in the first 10 overs.
After Padikkal’s departure, Buttler was then joined by skipper Sanju Samson (38 off 19 balls), who was equally destructive in their 67-run second wicket stand in just 5.4 overs. None of the KKR bowlers save Sunil Narine (2/21 in 4 overs) looked like posing any threat to Buttler.