Glenn Maxwell's hilarious Sharma gag

Publicly explaining team selection can be a delicate task for a captain at times, but not if you're Australian Glenn Maxwell.

Maxwell's Kings XI Punjab made one change for their match against Mumbai overnight, bringing in India's Test quick Ishant Sharma to play alongside fellow fast bowlers Sandeep Sharma and Mohit Sharma.

Maxwell was clearly in a relaxed mood ahead of the must-win clash, joking that Ishant's inclusion had more to do with his name than team balance.

"We decided we didn't have enough Sharmas in the team," Maxwell said with a smile at the coin toss. "So we decided to put one more in."

Ironically, Maxwell's comment came standing alongside another Sharma – Mumbai captain Rohit.

Mumbai also fielded leg-spinner Karn Sharma in their side, bringing the total number of Sharmas in the match to five, meaning almost a quarter of all players who took part were Sharmas. 

And it could have been six, but Mumbai decided against handing an IPL debut to young wicketkeeper-batsman Jitesh Sharma.

There is a total of eight Sharmas playing in the IPL this year; Ankit Sharma (Rising Pune Supergiant) and Bipul Sharma (Sunrisers Hyderabad) have both played a role in the tournament. 

None of the eight Sharmas are related.

A 2014 study estimated there were 4.8 million Sharmas in India, making it the eighth-most popular surname in the country.

The Sharma-fest in Mumbai brought back memories of one of the more unusual scorecard entries during an English county match more than 80 years ago; Middlesex's Harry Lee was caught by brother Frank off the bowling of another brother, Jack, resulting in the words "Lee c Lee b Lee" being entered in the scorebook.

Kings XI quick Mohit delivered a similarly confusing entry overnight, bowling Karn for 19 to produce 'Sharma b Sharma' on Mumbai's scorecard.

And in a match during the winter quadrangular series in Townsville last year, India A batsman Karun Nair was dismissed by Australia-born spinner Arjun Nair, who has Indian heritage.

But perhaps the most famous scorebook entry of all came during the 1979-80 Ashes, when Australia's Dennis Lillee was caught by England's Peter Willey off the bowling of Graham Dilley, resulting in 'Lillee c Willey b Dilley'.