Joe Root IPL 2023: Rajasthan Royals’ English maestro in brief numbers England Test captain Joe Root made his long-awaited Indian Premier League debut in 2023 with Rajasthan Royals, but the fairytale stayed brief. In his solitary outing at the crease, Root faced 15 balls for 10 runs, striking one boundary and finishing unbeaten on 10. With no sixes, fifties or centuries in that lone innings, his strike-rate settled at 66—a rare single-digit story for a batter of his calibre. Tasked to roll his off-breaks for the first time in IPL colours, Root bowled two economical overs, conceding 14 runs off 12 balls at an economy of 7.0. Though he failed to claim a wicket, his tidy spell kept the scoring in check and hinted at the all-round value Royals had banked on. Across the 2023 campaign, Root featured in just one match, making the numbers read like a postcard rather than a chapter: 10 runs, 1 four, 0 sixes, 0 wickets, but a memorable Royals debut all the same.

Chris Gayle IPL story: 13 seasons, 4 965 runs, 357 sixes and one unforgettable 175. The self-styled “Universe Boss” walked into IPL 2009 with Kolkata Knight Riders, but it was at Royal Challengers Bengaluru from 2011-2017 that he became a global T20 icon—belting 404 fours and 357 sixes overall at a jaw-dropping strike rate of 148. In 141 innings he cleared the rope once every 9.3 balls and produced 31 half-centuries plus six blistering hundreds, the most famous being his record 175* off 66 balls at the Chinnaswamy in 2013. After his Bengaluru fireworks, Gayle took his power game to Punjab Kings, turning up in orange from 2018 to 2021 and continuing to pepper boundaries with the same ruthless ease. While he rolled his arm over occasionally—18 wickets in 38 bowling innings—his narrative is written in soaring sixes and match-winning hundreds that re-defined T20 batting forever.

Note: This overview is partially generated using AI and is based on statistical data. Please verify with official sources for complete accuracy.