A mega auction every three years meant in the Indian Premier League has meant players have had to play for different teams but here's a list of cricketers who have played the most matches for a franchise.
Due to this, only a few cricketers, ever since the inception of the IPL, have played for a single franchise. Rohit Sharma recently played his 200th match for Mumbai Indians (MI) becoming the first player to do so for the franchise. But he isn’t the first to do it. Hence, here we have a look at five players to play the most matches for a franchise.
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Most matches for a franchise in IPL by a player
- Virat Kohli (RCB) – 240 matches
Virat Kohli has played only for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in his IPL career since making his debut in 2008, making him the one to play most matches for a franchise. He has vowed not to play for any other franchise until he retires from the sport. Kohli is indeed a prolific run-scorer in the history of the cash-rich league but the 2016 edition was his best with the bat. He amassed a mammoth 973 runs that season scoring four tons which is still a record for most runs scored in a single IPL edition.
Overall, Kohli has scored 7444 runs in 232 innings and is on top of the list of most runs scored in the T20 extravaganza. He has seven centuries to his name in the IPL to go with a staggering 52 half-centuries. He has also hit 241 sixes, the most for RCB in history recently going past AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle in this aspect.
- MS Dhoni (CSK) – 222 matches
MS Dhoni, only for the third time in his IPL career, is featuring as a non-captain in the tournament. He did it in 2017 for the entire season and started the 2022 edition as a player before taking over captaincy mid-season from Ravindra Jadeja. Dhoni has overall played 252 matches in IPL but 222 of those are for CSK while he featured in 30 matches for Rising Pune Supergiant in 2016 and 2017 IPL seasons.
The former CSK skipper has amassed 4508 runs in 191 innings at an impeccable average of 39.89 with 316 fours and 209 sixes to his name. He has also scored 22 fifties and has mustered runs at a strike-rate of 137.48. With IPL 2024 expected to be his last, Dhoni might add a few more runs to his tally before hanging his boots.
- Rohit Sharma (MI) – 200 matches
Rohit Sharma is only the third player in the history of IPL to play 200 or most matches for a franchise. Ever since MI picked him in IPL 2011, the man has played only for them even leading them to a staggering five IPL titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. Rohit is playing as a pure batter this season for the first time since 2013 with MI handing over the captaincy to Hardik Pandya. Overall, Rohit has played 245 matches in his IPL career so far as he featured for the now defunct Deccan Chargers for three seasons. Interestingly, he played a role of a finisher for the franchise that won the IPL trophy in 2009.
Rohit Sharma has scored 5110 runs for the five-time champions in 196 innings at a strike-rate of 130.12 with a century and 34 fifties to his name. He has also hit 466 fours and 210 maximums and is still going strong hitting it cleanly. Rohit is certainly to play IPL at least for a couple more years and can scale a lot more milestones in the league.
- Kieron Pollard (MI) – 189 matches
Kieron Pollard is no more playing IPL and has now been appointed the batting coach of Mumbai Indians. He featured only for one team right through his IPL career from 2010 and was a key player for them for 13 years. Pollard featured for the five-time champions in 189 matches scoring 3412 runs in 171 innings at a brilliant strike-rate of 147.32.
He smacked 16 fifties and bailed Mumbai Indians from trouble a lot of times. In fact, Pollard won lost matches for MI singlehandedly many times and for the same reason, he is one of the very few players to hit more sixes than fours in his IPL career. Pollard hit 223 sixes during his stint for MI in the cash-rich league and smashed 218 fours as well.
Despite batting at six or seven for the most part of his IPL career, Pollard is the second highest run-scorer for Mumbai Indians. His finishing skills waned with age and eventually retired ahead of the IPL 2023 before being made the batting coach by the franchise.
- Suresh Raina (CSK) – 176 matches
If any player other than MS Dhoni has ruled CSK and its fans, it has to be Suresh Raina who is also known as Mr IPL for his heroics at number three for the five-time champions. Apart from 2016 and 2017 when he played for Gujarat Lions, Raina featured only for Chennai Super Kings playing a staggering 176 matches for them.
The left-handed batter is the highest run-scorer for CSK in the history of IPL. He amassed 4687 runs in 171 innings with a century and 33 fifties to his credit. Raina smacked 425 fours and 180 sixes while batting for the men in yellow and also led CSK in a few matches especially whenever MS Dhoni didn’t play. Raina also would’ve gotten close to 200 matches for the franchise had he featured in the 2020 edition when he pulled out of the tournament at the last minute.
He returned to play in IPL 2021 but wasn’t the same player and was eventually released ahead of IPL 2022 mega auction. He then announced his retirement from the IPL and is now enjoying a commentary stint and features in the other T20 leagues as well.
