Which batsman has been bowled the most number of times in the IPL?

Batsman bowled the most times in the IPL

For any batsmen hearing the infamous death rattle as the ball dislodges bails, turning to see a stump cartwheeling past the wicket keeper or watching the triumphant bowler, palms aloft sprint past you to celebrate with his jubilant teammates are all fairly traumatic experiences to say the least. For some, this is a rarity but for others it happens all too often.

In this blog we look at the players who have been bowled the most number of times in the IPL.

Lets start with the top line stat of the batsmen that have been bowled the most in the IPL. Here are the top 5

Batsman	Balls	Dismissals	Times Bowled	as % of total dismissals	balls per bowled dismissal
S Watson	2813	126	36	28.57%	78.14
S Dhawan	4096	152	31	20.39%	132.13
V Kohli	4500	154	30	19.48%	150.00
G Gambhir	3404	136	27	19.85%	126.07
D Warner	3714	125	26	20.80%	142.85

At the head of the list and a player that was bowled 38 times in this IPL career is Aussie all-rounder Shane Watson.

I find it a touch amusing that Watto has been out bowled more than any other batsman in the history of the IPL simply because for much of his international career he was famed for getting his pads in the way of any ball that had even the faintest chance of bowling him, a subject that has not gone unnoticed by cricket lovers around the world. In fact, I can remember being in the ground during an Ashes Test where the whole crowd would appeal for LBW every ball he faced!

In fact, Shane Watson was so good at getting his legs in the way of the cricket ball hitting the stumps he even managed to deny his own teammates on certain occasions.

All of that though appears to have changed when he arrived in the IPL where he did a fine job of keeping his legs out of the way meaning by comparison he was only out LBW 6 times in a IPL career spanning 13 years. Perhaps the pads in India are a bit smaller?

Whatever the reason we can see that not only is he way out in front in terms of the total number of times bowled but his % of total dismissals bowled and balls per bowled dismissal are also significantly higher than anyone else in the top 5.

It is, of course, not surprising to see the likes of Kohli, Dhawan, Warner and Gambhir on this list. Firstly they’ve faced a huge number of balls in the IPL and secondly, as top order players they are more likely to face bowlers targeting the stumps with a little bit of movement. A career average of out bowled once every 5 innings seems to be the norm for the majority of established top order players.

To make things fairer then lets take a look at the players who have been bowled the most times in the IPL as a % of their total dismissals.

Batsman	Balls	Dismissals	Times bowled	as % of total dismissals
P Kumar	314	38	15	39.47%
B Stokes	681	35	13	37.14%
J Bairstow	555	19	7	36.84%
L Pomersbach	246	11	4	36.36%
V Kumar	274	28	10	35.71%

At the top of this list is Praveen Kumar who was bowled a whopping 39.4% of the time. Of course this isn’t the first time that Praveen has featured on this blog with his appearance on the list of biggest sixes ever hit in the IPL also notable. It seems then that if Praveen wasn’t smoking the ball out of the park he was generally missing it with fatal consequences.

Then come a couple of English batsmen who have also made a habit of getting bowled in their relatively successful IPL careers.

Anyone who has watched Jonny Bairstow’s career develop will know that he has made a significant change to his technique in the second half of it deliberately getting to the leg-side of the ball in order to access the off-side. The result has been more runs in white ball cricket but at the expense of his place in the Test team where he was particularly vulnerable to being bowled.

As for Ben Stokes, I’m at loss to explain why he’s been bowled so many times but there you go. Oppositions teams are definitely targeting the stumps and to good effect. Something to watch out for in IPL 2021!

Unsurprisingly given their tail ender status Praveen and Vinay Kumar head up the next table as well which shows the number of balls faced per time bowled. Essentially this means that Praveen Kumar was bowled once every 3 and half overs that he faced in the IPL which is some going! Making up the remainder of the table are 3 leg-spinners none of whom apparently gave much importance to getting in line with the ball during their IPL careers.

Batsman	Balls	Times bowled	balls per bowled dismissal
P Kumar	314	15	20.93
V Kumar	274	10	27.40
S Warne	214	6	35.67
A Mishra	389	9	42.67
PP Chawla	524	12	43.67

To finish lets spare a thought for 2 cricketers who have faced just a single delivery in the IPL that ended in them both being bowled. Hats off to Joe Denly and Sandeep Lamichhane for achieving such a feat.