IPL 2018: 5 players who may cross 4000 IPL runs in 2018

The Indian Premier League has entered into its second decade with the commencement of the 2018 season. Like every other season, the tournament is awaiting a plethora of records to be broken and milestones to be breached. As of now, the milestone of 4000 runs is the biggest batting milestone in the league as no player has been able to cross 5000 runs yet.

In ODI and Test cricket, the milestone of 10,000 runs is considered to be one of the biggest milestones and only a handful of players have been able to breach it. So is the milestone of 4000 runs in the IPL.

As of now, only 5 players have been able to cross the 4000 runs mark. Interestingly 4 of them have been playing from the first season of the league and this speaks volumes about the toughness of reaching that number.

Here are the 5 players who may cross the 4000 IPL runs mark this year:

Note: The stats in this article are until the end of Match 4 of IPL 2018.

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#5 AB de Villiers (3517 runs)

AB de Villiers, the South African batsman is one of the most explosive batsmen in the IPL. The creator of many shots has always entertained the fans with his 360-degree batting style. He is one of the few players who doesn't have a single hater in India.

AB de Villiers has been the Bangalore's finest foreign batsman over the years. He has been retained by the franchise every single season ever since he joined the team. In the IPL he has played in 130 matches in which he has scored 3517 runs.

The South African played a thunderous knock of 44 runs off 23 balls in the opening game for Bangalore. In all probability, he will be playing all the matches for Bangalore in this season. He is 483 runs short of reaching the 4000 runs mark and may breach the milestone before the end of the tournament.

#4 MS Dhoni (3566 runs)

MS Dhoni has been one of the best finishers in the IPL over the years. Although he plays in the lower middle order, he has managed to score more than 3500 runs, which is just incredible. Astonishingly, he is the only middle-order batsman in the IPL who has scored more than 3000 runs.

Dhoni who played for Rising Pune Supergiant in the previous two seasons has returned back to his former franchise Chennai Super Kings. In the IPL he has played in 160 matches in which he has scored 3566 runs.

He is 434 runs short of reaching the 4000 runs marks and may breach the milestone by the end of the season. He has been promoted up the order in the Super Kings' lineup which makes his chances of entering the 4000 runs club this season even higher.

#3 Chris Gayle (3626 runs)

Chris Gayle, the West Indian is the best T20 batsman in the world. He is the only player who has scored more than 11,000 runs in T20s and has scored 20 T20 centuries. No other batsman has even managed to score 10 centuries in T20s and this is enough to define Gayle's capability as a T20 player.

Gayle who was a regular in the Bangalore team in the previous years was not retained by the franchise overseeing his declining form. He surprisingly went unsold on the first day of the auction, but Kings XI Punjab finally bought him at the end of Day 2.

Gayle is currently 38 years old and is nearing his retirement, which is one of the biggest reasons that none of the teams showed interest in him.

In the IPL he has played in 101 matches in which he has scored 3626 runs and is 374 runs short of the 4000 runs mark. He wasn't included in the playing XI in Punjab's opening game and the team may continue to exclude him until everything goes fine for them. Gayle may breach the milestone if he gets a few games this season which may turn out to be his last in the tournament.

#2 Shikhar Dhawan (3639 runs)

Shikhar Dhawan has been India's best opener across formats at present. He is one of the few players who has the ability to adjust between the three cricket formats. He is a regular in the Indian Test, ODI, and T20 teams and will be opening for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL this season.

Dhawan has played a crucial role in Hyderabad's campaign in the IPL so far. He used to open along with David Warner in the previous seasons but will be missing his partner this year. With enough of experience, he must be looking forward to providing headstarts to his team this season much like what Warner used to do.

In the IPL he has played in 128 matches in which he has scored 3639 runs. He is 361 runs short of reaching the 4000 runs mark and the milestone may be easily breached overseeing the form he has been in the recent times.

#1 Robin Uthappa (3748 runs)

Robin Uthappa, the Karnataka batsman has been one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the IPL. He has been a mainstay in the Kolkata Knight Riders team and is their most impactful player.

Uthappa was not retained by the Kolkata team ahead of the auction, but as expected they successfully got him back using the Right to Match card in the auction. He is one of the senior players in the team that is full of young players and thus a lot of responsibility rests upon his shoulders.

In the IPL he has played in 150 matches in which he has scored 3748 runs. He is just 252 runs short of reaching the 4000 runs mark and in all probability will breach the milestone before the end of this season.