Purple Cap in IPL 2026

Gujarat Titans pacer Kagiso Rabada jumped to the top of the Purple Cap leaderboard with a two-wicket haul in Qualifier 2 against the Rajasthan Royals. The South Africa speedster now has a total of 28 wickets in 16 matches. Rabada is followed by RCB's talisman Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has a total of 26 scalps in 15 matches.

Jofra Archer occupies third place with 25 wickets. Chennai Super Kings' Anshul Kamboj is fourth with 21 wickets but is no longer in the race following his team’s elimination. Sunrisers Hyderabad's Eshan Malinga completes the top five standings with 20 wickets.

The old saying goes that batting wins you matches, but bowling wins you tournaments. The IPL Purple Cap award is a perfect indication of that. The Purple Cap goes to the player every year with the most wickets in that edition of the IPL and rewards a full long season of threat and potency combined with consistency and regularly standing up to perform for the team.

The Purple Cap rewards all kinds of bowlers – the ones with the most dangerous, devilish bowling, with high pace and deadly yorkers and the ability to produce spin, but also those who have made an art form out of building pressure and making that count by forcing opposing batters to make mistakes. The Purple Cap serves to honor the players who understand the skills behind their bowling the best.

The 2025 Purple Cap was won by Gujarat Titans spearhead Prasidh Krishna, whose steepling bounce and seam off the pitch helped him to 25 wickets. He beat out Noor Ahmad and Josh Hazlewood, continuing a streak of Indian seamers impressing in the format. It speaks to the depth of bowling in the IPL and in Indian cricket that such stellar seasons can be produced by bowlers deep into their fast-bowling stocks.

The first Purple Cap was won by Sohail Tanvir of Pakistan, who took 22 wickets en route to Rajasthan Royals’ IPL victory in the inaugural 2008 season. Another left-arm seamer would win the 2009 award in a winning cause, as RP Singh finished with 23 wickets in 2009. In fact, winning the Purple Cap does correlate to success—in the IPL’s 18-year history, the Purple Cap winner has made the final on nine occasions, indicating that having a spearhead has its benefits in this team sport.

Out of those 18 Purple Cap winners, seamers have won 15 of the Purple Caps on offer. Only three spinners have had the honor of bearing the Purple Cap upon conclusion of the IPL season—Pragyan Ojha with 21 wickets for Deccan Chargers in 2010, Imran Tahir for Chennai Super Kings in 2019, and Yuzvendra Chahal for Rajasthan Royals in 2022.

In terms of the Indian players against the overseas players, domestic talents have won ten of the Purple Cap awards, with overseas players winning eight. Indian players’ dominance has come to the fore recently, with each of the last five awards staying within the confines of players from the IPL’s home country.

Only three players have breached the 30-wicket mark in the history of the IPL. Dwayne Bravo and Harshal Patel are tied for the most wickets in an individual IPL season with 32, in 2013 and 2021, respectively, with their command over the slower ball and ability to take wickets at the death. South African gun Kagiso Rabada with Delhi Capitals in 2020 is the only other player to reach the 30 mark.

The team with the most representation in the Purple Cap award winners’ list is Chennai Super Kings, who won three in a row between 2013 and 2015 thanks to Dwayne Bravo sandwiching Mohit Sharma’s 2014 season. They added a fourth with Tahir’s 2019 season.

The Hyderabad franchise in its two iterations also has four winners. The Deccan Chargers won in consecutive years with Singh and Ojha. Later, Bhuvneshwar Kumar asserted his dominance as one of the best T20 bowlers of all time with 49 combined wickets in 2016 and 2017.

Along with Bravo and Bhuvneshwar, Harshal Patel is the only other multiple-time Purple Cap winner. He is also the only player to win with two different teams: RCB in 2021 and Punjab Kings three years later.

Kolkata Knight Riders are the only team out of the original eight of the IPL who are yet to call a Purple Cap winner their own, despite the successes of players such as Sunil Narine in their franchise history. They will be looking to amend that in the 2026 season.

List of IPL Purple Cap winners:

• 2008 — Sohail Tanvir (RR), 22 wickets
• 2009 — RP Singh (DC), 23 wickets
• 2010 — Pragyan Ojha (DC), 21 wickets
• 2011 — Lasith Malinga (MI), 28 wickets
• 2012 — Morne Morkel (DD), 25 wickets
• 2013 — Dwayne Bravo (CSK), 32 wickets
• 2014 — Mohit Sharma (CSK), 23 wickets
• 2015 — Dwayne Bravo (CSK), 26 wickets
• 2016 — Bhuvneshwar Kumar (SRH), 23 wickets
• 2017 — Bhuvneshwar Kumar (SRH), 26 wickets
• 2018 — Andrew Tye (KXIP), 24 wickets
• 2019 — Imran Tahir (CSK), 26 wickets
• 2020 — Kagiso Rabada (DC), 30 wickets
• 2021 — Harshal Patel (RCB), 32 wickets
• 2022 — Yuzvendra Chahal (RR), 27 wickets
• 2023 — Mohammed Shami (GT), 28 wickets
• 2024 — Harshal Patel (PBKS), 24 wickets
• 2025 — Prasidh Krishna (GT), 25 wickets