IPL playerSouth Africa2018 to 2026
Heinrich Klaasen
On scorecards: H Klaasen · Right-hand bat
Heinrich Klaasen, a wicketkeeper-batter, has played six IPL seasons for three franchises.
The arrival
Heinrich Klaasen's first IPL season was 2018, with Rajasthan Royals, a signing made outside the auction.
That first season brought 4 matches and 57 runs. The best was still to come.
The peak
The high point with the bat was 2026, for Sunrisers Hyderabad: 624 runs at an average of 48.0, striking at 160.0 in a season when the league as a whole struck at 156.5, with 6 fifties, and a highest score of 69. There were four seasons of 400 runs or more in all (2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026).
Measured against the league around it, though, the most destructive season was 2023: 448 runs at a strike rate of 177.1, 35 runs per hundred balls quicker than the IPL as a whole that year.
Franchise by franchise
2018, Rajasthan Royals. 4 matches and 57 runs.
2019, Royal Challengers Bangalore. Bought at the 2019 auction for ₹50 lakh. 3 matches and 9 runs.
2023 to 2026, Sunrisers Hyderabad. Bought at the 2023 auction for ₹5.25 cr. 57 matches and 2,038 runs.
3 spells with three franchises in all. The longest was with Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2023 to 2026. 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing from the record: seasons without an IPL appearance.
How the runs came
Across the career, Heinrich Klaasen has struck at 166.7. The league around those same seasons, weighted by how much batting each one involved, struck at 150.6, so Heinrich Klaasen has scored about 16 runs per hundred balls faster than the typical batter of the time. 62% of the runs came in fours and sixes: 146 fours and 120 sixes.
The ball-by-ball record adds the detail. 24.7% of the balls Heinrich Klaasen faced were dot balls, a lower share than 100% of the 140 batters who have faced 500 balls or more in the IPL. A six came every 10.5 balls, the 11th-best rate in that group, and a four every 8.6.
The fielding record: 35 catches, 8 run-outs and 7 stumpings, the stumpings a reminder of the gloves.
At the auction
Heinrich Klaasen has gone under the hammer four times, bought twice and left unsold twice. The highest price was ₹5.25 cr, paid by Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2023, more than 5 times the base price. The price climbed with the reputation: ₹50 lakh in 2019, ₹5.25 cr by 2023. Unsold in 2020, Heinrich Klaasen was bought again in 2023 by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.
Where it stands
Heinrich Klaasen has made 64 IPL appearances, the latest for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2026, and has won 2 player-of-the-match awards.
Season by season
| Season | Team | M | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 50/100 | Wkts | Econ | Best | Ct | POTM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Rajasthan Royals | 4 | 57 | 32 | 19.0 | 121.3 | 0/0 | – | – | – | 7 | ||
| 2019 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 3 | 9 | 6 | 4.5 | 90.0 | 0/0 | – | – | – | 1 | ||
| 2023 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 12 | 448 | 104 | 49.8 | 177.1 | 2/1 | – | – | – | 4 | ||
| 2024 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 16 | 479 | 80* | 39.9 | 171.1 | 4/0 | – | – | – | 10 | ||
| 2025 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 14 | 487 | 105* | 44.3 | 172.7 | 1/1 | – | – | – | 7 | 1 | |
| 2026 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 15 | 624 | 69 | 48.0 | 160.0 | 6/0 | – | – | – | 13 | 1 |
Franchise journey
- Rajasthan Royals: 2018
- Royal Challengers Bangalore: 2019
- Sunrisers Hyderabad: 2023 to 2026
Ball-by-ball detail
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Dot balls faced | 24.7% |
| Balls per four | 8.6 |
| Balls per six | 10.5 |
| Catches | 35 |
| Run-outs | 8 |
| Stumpings | 7 |
At the auction
| Auction | Set | Base price | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | – | ₹50 lakh | Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for ₹50 lakh |
| 2020 | Wicketkeeper | ₹50 lakh | Unsold |
| 2022 | – | ₹50 lakh | Unsold |
| 2023 | WK1 | ₹1 cr | Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for ₹5.25 cr |
Sources
- CricArcade IPL season statistics
- CricArcade IPL auction archive
- Kaggle IPL Complete Match Dataset 2008-2026, ball-by-ball, cross-checked against Cricsheet