Brad Hodge

The arrival

Brad Hodge was there from the start, in the league's first season, 2008, signed by Kolkata Knight Riders outside the auction.

That first season brought 3 matches and 12 runs. The best was still to come.

The peak

The high point with the bat was 2009, for Kolkata Knight Riders: 365 runs at an average of 40.6, striking at 117.7 in a season when the league as a whole struck at 116.9, with 3 fifties, and a highest score of 73.

Measured against the league around it, though, the most destructive season was 2012: 245 runs at a strike rate of 140.0, 16 runs per hundred balls quicker than the IPL as a whole that year.

With the ball, the best season was 2011, for Kochi Tuskers Kerala: 7 wickets at 7.00 runs an over, while the league's bowlers went for 7.51, with best figures of 4 for 13.

Franchise by franchise

2008 to 2010, Kolkata Knight Riders. 19 matches, 476 runs and 9 wickets.

2011, Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Bought at the 2011 auction for ₹1.91 cr. 14 matches, 285 runs and 7 wickets.

2012 to 2014, Rajasthan Royals. Bought at the 2012 auction for ₹2.38 cr. 33 matches, 639 runs and 1 wicket.

3 spells with three franchises in all. The longest was with Kolkata Knight Riders, 2008 to 2010.

Bat, ball and method

Across the career, Brad Hodge struck at 125.2. The league around those same seasons, weighted by how much batting each one involved, struck at 121.5, so Brad Hodge scored about 4 runs per hundred balls faster than the typical batter of the time. 53% of the runs came in fours and sixes: 122 fours and 43 sixes.

The ball-by-ball record adds the detail. 35.7% of the balls Brad Hodge faced were dot balls, a lower share than 53% of the 140 batters who have faced 500 balls or more in the IPL. A six came every 26 balls, and a four every 9.2.

With the ball, 17 wickets in 234 deliveries, at 7.77 runs an over against a league rate of 7.45 for the same seasons: 0.32 an over more expensive than the typical bowler of the time, the price of a bowler who took wickets often. There was one four-wicket haul, and the best figures were 4 for 13.

The fielding record: 22 catches and 5 run-outs.

At the auction

Brad Hodge went under the hammer five times, bought three times and left unsold twice. The highest price was ₹2.40 cr, paid by Rajasthan Royals in 2014. Unsold in 2008, Brad Hodge was bought in 2011 by Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.

The legacy

Brad Hodge made 66 IPL appearances, the last for Rajasthan Royals in 2014, and won 6 player-of-the-match awards.