IPL playerIndia2008 to 2017
Iqbal Abdulla
Right-hand bat
Iqbal Abdulla, a bowler, played nine IPL seasons for three franchises. One title came along the way.
The arrival
Iqbal Abdulla was there from the start, in the league's first season, 2008, signed by Kolkata Knight Riders outside the auction.
That first season brought 1 match and 1 run.
The peak
The best season was 2011, for Kolkata Knight Riders: 16 wickets at 6.10 runs an over, while the league's bowlers went for 7.51, with best figures of 3 for 24.
Franchise by franchise
2008 to 2013, Kolkata Knight Riders. 33 matches and 28 wickets; champions in 2012.
2014, Rajasthan Royals. Bought at the 2014 auction for ₹65 lakh. 1 match.
2015 to 2017, Royal Challengers Bangalore. Arrived outside the auction. 15 matches and 12 wickets.
3 spells with three franchises in all. The longest was with Kolkata Knight Riders, 2008 to 2013. 2009 is missing from the record: a season without an IPL appearance.
How the wickets came
With the ball, 40 wickets in 920 deliveries, at 7.23 runs an over against a league rate of 7.78 for the same seasons: 0.55 an over cheaper than the typical bowler of the time, the mark of a bowler who kept things tight.
36% of the balls Iqbal Abdulla bowled were dots, a higher share than 60% of the 150 bowlers with 500 balls or more; a wicket came every 23 balls.
The fielding record: 12 catches and 5 run-outs.
At the auction
Iqbal Abdulla went under the hammer twice. The highest price was ₹65 lakh, paid by Rajasthan Royals in 2014. The market cooled over time: the last purchase, in 2016, cost ₹10 lakh.
Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.
The legacy
Iqbal Abdulla made 49 IPL appearances, the last for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2017, and won 2 player-of-the-match awards.
Season by season
| Season | Team | M | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 50/100 | Wkts | Econ | Best | Ct | POTM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 1 | 1 | 1* | – | 50.0 | 0/0 | 0 | 7.33 | - | 0 | ||
| 2010 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 3 | 0 | 0* | – | – | 0/0 | 1 | 7.18 | 1/28 | 0 | ||
| 2011 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 15 | 15 | 12* | – | 125.0 | 0/0 | 16 | 6.10 | 3/24 | 2 | 2 | |
| 2012 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 9 | 2 | 1* | – | 66.7 | 0/0 | 4 | 6.55 | 1/20 | 5 | Champions | |
| 2013 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 5 | 8 | 6* | – | 57.1 | 0/0 | 7 | 7.54 | 3/29 | 0 | ||
| 2014 | Rajasthan Royals | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | 0/0 | 0 | 8.50 | - | 1 | ||
| 2015 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 5 | 20 | 20 | 10.0 | 111.1 | 0/0 | 4 | 7.89 | 2/36 | 1 | ||
| 2016 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 8 | 37 | 33* | – | 137.0 | 0/0 | 6 | 8.52 | 3/40 | 3 | ||
| 2017 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 2 | 5 | 5* | – | 71.4 | 0/0 | 2 | 11.00 | 2/36 | 0 |
Franchise journey
- Kolkata Knight Riders: 2008 to 2013
- Rajasthan Royals: 2014
- Royal Challengers Bangalore: 2015 to 2017
Ball-by-ball detail
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Dot balls faced | 39.3% |
| Balls per four | 9.3 |
| Balls per six | 84 |
| Dot balls bowled | 36% |
| Balls per wicket | 23 |
| Catches | 12 |
| Run-outs | 5 |
| Stumpings | 0 |
At the auction
Sources
- CricArcade IPL season statistics
- CricArcade IPL auction archive
- Kaggle IPL Complete Match Dataset 2008-2026, ball-by-ball, cross-checked against Cricsheet