Kolkata Knight Riders Name Johnson Charles As Replacement For Litton Das For Remaining IPL 2023 Season

West Indies batter Johnson Charles has the record of scoring fastest T20I century for his nation earlier this year against South Africa.

Two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have named West Indies batter Johnson Charles as replacement for Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das for the remaining IPL 2023 season. Litton Das had to return to Bangladesh last week due to a family emergency.

“Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday named Johnson Charles as a replacement for Litton Das for the remainder of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023,” an IPL statement said.

Charles is a wicketkeeper-batter like Litton Das and has represented West Indies in 41 T20Is, scoring 971 runs and was a part of West Indies’ 2012 and 2016 ICC World Twenty20-winning squads. Additionally, he has played 224 T20s and has over 5600 runs against his name. “He joins KKR for Rs 50 Lakh,” the statement added.

Charles scored the fastest T20I century by a West Indies batter, off 39 balls, earlier this year against South Africa in Centurion. KKR are getting ready to take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in match no. 47 of the IPL 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Litton Das played in only one match in the IPL 2023 season, scoring 4 runs before returning home to Bangladesh. With his 39-ball hundred earlier this season, Charles broke Chris Gayle’s record. Charles now holds the record for the fastest T20I hundred by a West Indian.

Earlier, Gayle had scored a ton off 47 balls against England in Mumbai in 2016. Charles also notched the joint second-fastest hundred in T20Is, equalling Romania’s Sivakumar Periyalwar (against Turkey in 2019) and Hungary’s Zeeshan Kukikhel (against Austria in 2022).

The record for the fastest T20I hundred is being jointly held by India’s Rohit Sharma, South Africa’s David Miller and Czech Republic’s Sudesh Wickramasekara. Charles was part of the Durban’s Super Giants team in the inaugural SA20 league earlier this year.

The 34-year-old from St Lucia in the Caribbean has scored 5,607 runs in 224 T20 matches in his career with a strike-rate of 130.72 with 3 centuries and 32 fifties to his name. Charles' power-hitting came to the fore in international cricket when he muscled 52 off 36 balls against India, setting up West Indies' win over India in the World T20 semi-final in Mumbai in 2016.