IPL 2023: Jos Buttler Is No.1 Batter In World Right Now: Harbhajan Singh

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The second week of IPL is living up to its reputation of being the Incredible Premier League. Between Monday and Thursday, we have witnessed four back-to-back last-ball thrillers.

Rajasthan Royals produced a stunning performance and breached fortress Chepauk by defeating Chennai for the first time since 2008. Sandeep Sharma kept his cool in the final over and defended 20 runs to give his team a famous win by preventing MS Dhoni - the finisher - from finishing it off in style.

Apart from Sandeep's nerve of steel under pressure in the final over, RR's spin trio of Ashwin-Chahal-Zampa bowled beautifully and Jos Buttler's gritty half-century took them to a competitive total.

Hailing Jos Buttler - the Orange Cap winner of IPL 2022 - for batting extremely well on a spin-friendly Chepauk track, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh termed the English opener 'the number 1 batter in the world'.

Speaking to Star Sports, Cricket Live Show, Harbhajan Singh said, "I fell short of words to praise Jos Buttler. He is a proper batter of the cricket ball. He uses the crease to perfection, possesses good technique, and he has good footwork against pace and spin. For me, he's the No. 1 batter in world cricket at the moment."

The England white-ball captain is currently the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament. He has scored 204 runs in four matches at an average of 51 and a strike rate of 170. The 32-year-old's scores in his first four of IPL 2023 are - 54, 19, 79 and 52.

He won the Orange Cap in 2022 edition of the cash-rich league. The right-hander scored 863 runs in 17 matches at an average of 57.53 and a strike rate of 149.05. Buttler is only the second batter after Virat Kohli to have scored more than 850 runs in a single IPL edition.

(With inputs from press release)