For the remaining IPL 2023 season, Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das will be replaced by West Indies batter Johnson Charles, according to two-time IPL champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Due to a family situation, Litton Das was forced to return to Bangladesh last week.
According to an IPL announcement, “Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday named Johnson Charles as a replacement for Litton Das for the remaining TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.”
Like Litton Das, Charles is a wicketkeeper-batsman who has played for the West Indies in 41 T20Is, totaling 971 runs. He was also a member of the 2012 and 2016 teams that won the ICC World Twenty20. In addition, he has participated in 224 T20s and amassed over 5600 runs. It continued, “He joins KKR for Rs 50 lakh.”
Earlier this year, Charles beat South Africa in Centurion and recorded the quickest T20I century by a West Indies hitter (off 39 balls). At the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday, KKR is getting ready to face Sunrisers Hyderabad in game 47 of the IPL 2023.
During the IPL 2023 season, Litton Das only participated in one game, scoring four runs before leaving for Bangladesh. Chris Gayle’s record was surpassed by Charles earlier this season with a 39-ball hundred. Charles currently holds the record for the quickest West Indian T20I century.
Gayle had scored a century off just 47 balls in a match against England in Mumbai in 2016. Charles also achieved the second-fastest hundred in T20Is, tied with Zeeshan Kukikhel of Hungary and Sivakumar Periyalwar of Romania (both against Turkey in 2019).
Three players—Rohit Sharma of India, David Miller of South Africa, and Sudesh Wickramasekara of the Czech Republic—share the record for the fastest T20I hundred. Earlier this year, Charles played for the Durban Super Giants club in the inaugural SA20 league.
The 34-year-old from St. Lucia in the Caribbean has a career total of 5,607 runs at a strike rate of 130.72, with three hundred and 32 fifty-pluses. He has played in 224 T20 matches. Charles’ power-hitting prowess was on display in international cricket when he pounded 52 off 36 balls against India in Mumbai in 2016, paving the way for the West Indies to defeat India in the World T20 semi-final.
