On April 7, 2024, Karnataka wicketkeeper BR Sharath made his IPL debut for Gujarat Titans against Lucknow Super Giants.

Replacement for Robin Minz

Gujarat Titans had three wicketkeepers in their original squad for IPL 2024 – Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, and the uncapped Robin Minz. When Minz had a road accident, they replaced him with Karnataka wicketkeeper BR Sharath.

Born in 1996, Sharath made his debut in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2017/18, and in the Ranji Trophy a season later, against defending champions Vidarbha. In that match, Vidarbha made 307 and reduced Karnataka to 149-5, but Sharath walked out at that point and responded with 103. Till date, he remains the only Karnataka wicketkeeper to make a hundred on first-class debut.

It has remained his only hundred in professional cricket. From 20 first-class matches, he has 616 runs at 23.69 along with 80 dismissals. He averages 30.50 in List A cricket, while his T20 strike rate of 119 makes an underwhelming reading.

Impressive cameos at SMAT

However, he did impress at least twice in the last edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Against Uttar Pradesh, he made 26 from 18 balls from No.5. Two days later against Tripura, he hit three sixes in a nine-ball unbeaten 26.

It was perhaps the two cameos that convinced Gujarat Titans to pick him as the reserve wicketkeeper when Minz was ruled out. When Saha missed the Lucknow match with a back spasm, Gujarat could not pick Wade, for they already had Kane Williamson, Rashid Khan, Spencer Johnson, and Noor Ahmad in their XI.

Lucknow Super Giants have won the toss and have opted to bat against GT.#LSGvsGT #IPL2024 #Cricket #KLRahul #ShubmanGill pic.twitter.com/qMPO7ZKfOj

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) April 7, 2024

So they had to pick Sharath. It is not quite a like-for-like replacement: not only does Saha open the batting for the team but he also has the third-best powerplay strike rate (134) in the IPL among all Indians to have faced a thousand balls in that phase of the innings, after Prithvi Shaw and Virender Sehwag. Sharath bats in the middle order.

He got off the mark when he caught Marcus Stoinis off Darshan Nalkande as Lucknow made 163-5. With the bat, he made two before Krunal Pandya snared him as Gujarat slipped to 61-4 in the ninth over.

Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.