Jos Buttler keen to get in on the Indian Premier League ‘six-a-thon’

Even by IPL standards, the hitting witnessed this week has been little short of extraordinary, particularly from those wearing the distinctive pink shirts of the Rajasthan Royals

The Rajasthan Royals have been going big in this year's IPL (Rajasthan Royals)

How Jos Buttler must long for a crowd.

But after a summer of silence in England, he can at least console himself with the regular sound of balls flying into boundary boards and smashing into empty seats at the Indian Premier League, held in this strangest of years in the UAE.

Even by IPL standards, the hitting witnessed this week has been little short of extraordinary, particularly from those wearing the distinctive pink shirts of the Rajasthan Royals. On Sunday evening, Rahul Tewatia, the Royals’ leg-spinner smashed five sixes in a Sheldon Cottrell over as the Jaipur-based franchise raced to the highest IPL run chase. Given he had scored just 23 runs off his first 17 balls, it was an assault that few saw coming. Unsurprisingly, the 27-year-old was seen impersonating the fabled Cottrell salute in the post-match celebrations.  

Never one to be upstaged, Jofra Archer has hit seven sixes from the 15 balls he has so far faced in the competition, giving him a strike rate of 306.

Eye-watering stuff. And after smiting two maximums himself during Rajasthan’s first defeat of the tournament against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday night, it’s no wonder that Buttler can’t wait to continue getting in on the act in the coming weeks, particularly at Sharjah’s postage stamp ground.

“Sharjah is certainly one of those six-hitting grounds as you saw from a couple of games, the team that does hit the most sixes is there winning it,” he says.  

“It’s almost like playing against the West Indies in T20 cricket, hitting sixes is a main focus of how they go about trying to win the game.  

“And at Sharjah, that could become a theme. I think the wickets can get slower and obviously as the tournament goes on, they’ll be using three grounds so used wickets will become a feature of the tournament. So it may become a little bit harder to step-hit, and be a six-a-thon.  

“The other two grounds are generally a little bit bigger, on one side at Dubai last night there was a bigger boundary and Abu Dhabi is a quite a large playing surface as well.

“But what the six-hitting shows is that if you have that capability, you can make your run quite late to try and win the game. Rahul Tewatia hit five sixes in an over that took us from being out of the game to right back in the game.

“In past tournaments, you think of Andre Russell, and KKR needing 70 off four overs and managing to get there. So I think if you have that six hitting capability, you never feel quite safe as the team defending. You realise you can get more at the end than you probably thought you could.”    

It was a similar story when the Royal Challengers Bangalore took on the Mumbai Indians, with the West Indies’ Keiron Pollard smashing five sixes in a 24-ball innings of 60. In all, the game contained 26 of them – equating to a maximum roughly every nine balls.

Who would be a bowler. Mind you, Archer has been similarly impressive with the ball so far in the tournament, taking three wickets and going for just 18 off his four overs against KKR this week, the kind of economy rate that most can only dream of.

After failing to clear the boundary for England in ODI cricket, though – he has only hit two fours in his international 50 over career - Eoin Morgan will be hoping that Archer’s new found freedom with the bat will extend well beyond this tournament.

“A few guys have been saying, ‘where's that been’ and Rajasthan have been joking why have we had him down at 10 and 11,” laughs Buttler.

“But  we all know how capable Jofra is with the bat, he’s an incredibly talented guy all round, so it's fantastic for him. When he bats the way he has done so far in this tournament, and add that to bowling 90 plus miles an hour, that’s a pretty good cricketer.

“He’s bowled exceptionally fast, but he doesn't just bowl fast, he has exceptional skills as well. As lots of great bowlers do, he makes it look easy, doesn't he. He's got an exceptionally repeatable action, very efficient. So he's someone lots of people really enjoy watching bowl because of that effortless nature with which he seems to generate so much pace. He really is a trump card for the team. Sometimes in tough situations you want him to be able to bowl six overs really out of the 20.”

The only thing missing is those bums on seats. Mind you, with Buttler, Archer and Tewatia peppering the stands, it might be safer for spectators to steer clear for a good while longer.  

Watch the Rajasthan Royals take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in the team’s next Dream11 IPL match on Sky Sports – Saturday 3rd October 11:00