Urvil Patel of Chennai Super Kings (Photo by ANI) NEW DELHI: First ball: one. Next eight balls: six sixes, 41 runs and IPL history rewritten. On Sunday night in Chepauk, Urvil Patel didn’t get into the innings, only to destroy immediately.Chennai Super Kings were chasing 204 against Lucknow Super Giants in an IPL 2026 match and the 26-year-old came on after the dismissal of Sanju Samson in the fourth over. What followed was one of the most explosive starts in IPL history.
Watch
Why Suryakumar Yadav Will Lose India T20I Captaincy: Everything You Need To KnowThen three consecutive maximums from Avesh Khan. Digvesh Rathi repeatedly disappeared into the stands. Even Mohammed Shami was not spared. In the blink of an eye, Urvil rocketed to a 13-ball fifty – the fastest haul in IPL history.And buried in the chaos was another extraordinary record.Urvil became the first batsman in IPL history to smash six sixes in the first eight balls of an innings. By the time he faced just eight deliveries, he was already on 41, comfortably eclipsing the previous highest score after eight balls in IPL history which was 33.An emotional Urvil celebrated the milestone by pulling out a handwritten note that read: “This is for you, Dad.”By the time his breathtaking knock ended on 65 off just 23 balls, studded with eight towering sixes, CSK were firmly in control of the chase and eventually sealed victory with four balls to spare.But for those who know Urvil intimately, it was not madness. It was a careful practice. The goalkeeper had already warned the coach three days before the match.
‘I can make a blast’
On Sunday night, he delivered just that. “He told us, ‘I will do the main dhamaka’ from the first match of the day. I believed in myself. But I didn’t know how big it would be,” Urvil’s coach Prakash Patani told TimesofIndia.com.The aggressive right-hander was only extended in the CSK XI after Ayush Mhatre suffered a hamstring injury. Nevertheless, in just four games, the intention was unmistakable.There were signs even before the LSG massacre. After falling for 4 against Gujarat Titans in his first match, Urvil bounced back with 24 off 12 balls against Mumbai Indians, hammering two fours and two sixes. Then came a 9-ball 17 against Delhi Capitals, which was a modest score on paper but still contained two towering sixes.Attack, no matter the situation, was Urvil’s mantra. Well-known commentator Ian Bishop summed it up perfectly on air during the DC game. “He is a no-nonsense kind of batsman. This is what CSK needed.”
Urvil Patel’s obsession with 200 sixes a day
The six-hitting phenomenon that Urvil has become is not just a product of chance or natural instinct – it is the result of deliberate training, discipline and sharp focus heading into IPL 2026.Urvil has made power hitting the centerpiece of his preparations for IPL 2026. Behind the scenes, the Gujarat batsman has followed a brutal training routine built around one mind-boggling goal: to hit 200 sixes every day.According to coach Prakash Patani, Urvil took up the challenge relentlessly at the PCCC Academy cricket ground near New Gunj Bazar in Palanpur, Gujarat.“The 200 sixes he hit in a day. That was the kind of preparation he was doing for IPL 2026. Hitting one or two sixes is fine, but eight consistently at this level is not easy. There is tremendous hard work behind it,” Patani said.“He didn’t miss a single day and the process took over a month. He would come in at 5am and practice until 1pm or sometimes 2pm, with short breaks in between. Most of the time we didn’t even use the bowling machine. I looked at him with the help of a robo arm. He only practiced with Kookaburra balls,” he added.“He was hungry. He was adamant that he would do well in this IPL. He always said, ‘mujhe mauka mila hai, kuch logon ko milta hai; main kuch alag karna chahta hoon’ (few people get this opportunity. I want to do something different).”
Urvil with his coach Prakash Patani (special arrangement)
Urvil Patel: Elite Sixer Striker
And statistically it already is. One of the cleanest ways to measure the effectiveness of sixes in T20 cricket is the number of balls per six: essentially how many deliveries it takes the batter to clear the ropes once. The lower the number, the more destructive the attacker.Urvil has smashed 90 sixes off just 841 balls in T20 cricket, giving him an amazing balls-to-six ratio of 9.34. That puts it in elite territory.Among the T20 mainstays, only a handful of players operate below the 10-ball-a-six mark:
Urvil Patel, Elite Sixer (AI Generated Photo)
For context, Urvil is currently hitting sixes more often than Glenn Maxwell, Heinrich Klaasen, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma.His six-strike rate translates to 10.7 sixes per 100 balls: a figure that places him firmly in the ultra-elite ‘six-strike’ group in T20 cricket.Of course, sample size matters. Most of the names on this list have maintained those numbers in thousands of balls and in multiple leagues around the world. But purely in terms of six-hit efficiency, Urvil is already in rare company.
Dhoni’s bat connection
Ahead of IPL 2026, Urvil also received a special set of bats, including one gifted by legendary Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.“He got the bat from Dhoni. It had a heavy bottom hand. He practiced with that bat in the CSK nets. In fact, he even told Dhoni that the bat seemed a little heavy. Dhoni told him, ‘this will help you hit big sixes, practice with it’,” revealed Patani.“Urvil practiced with that bat in the CSK nets and later got a custom-made bat with a slightly heavy bottom hand. That’s the one he used against LSG.”A wicket-keeper batsman in his own right, Urvil has always idolized Dhoni.“He is grateful to share the dressing room and the field with this legend. Dhoni tells him, ‘jaise khelte ho waise khelna. Agar achha cricketer banna hai to hamesha zameen pe rehna’ (play the way you naturally play. If you want to become a great cricketer, always stay grounded),” the coach said.
A relentless six in domestic cricket
Urvil’s six-hitting reputation didn’t start in the IPL. During the 2024–25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he smashed a 28-ball T20 century – the fastest by an Indian and second fastest in men’s T20 cricket overall, which included 12 sixes. A week later, he scored a 36-ball hundred against Uttarakhand, again smashing 11 sixes. In List A cricket, he owns 41 ball centuries – the second fastest by an Indian behind only Yusuf Pathan.In fact, that season Urvil hit the most sixes with 29 in six innings, eclipsing the likes of Abhishek Sharma (18 in 7), Priyansh Arya (23 in 9) and Rajast Patidar (27 in 9). And it wasn’t a one-season wonder.The following season, Survival managed 18 sixes in 7 innings, but most notably, he finished with the second-best strike-rate for a player with a min. 50 bounces in a season (243.75), behind only Abhishek Shamu’s 243.75.Urvil was first picked up by Gujarat Titans ahead of IPL 2023 for his base price of Rs 20 crore but did not play a single game during his tenure with the franchise. He was eventually released before the IPL 2024 auction.Despite strong domestic performances, he surprisingly went unsold again in the IPL 2025 auction. His fortunes changed when Chennai Super Kings signed him as a replacement for Vanshe Bedi’s injury during the 2025 season. He appeared in three matches that year before being retained for Rs 30 crore ahead of IPL 2026.Now, after one unforgettable night of six-hit destruction, CSK may have discovered just what they were looking for: a fearless boundary chaser built for modern T20 cricket.
