As the 19th Indian Premier League season gathers pace, the spotlight is firmly on the race for the IPL 2026 Purple Cap, with bowlers across teams battling for early supremacy.
Awarded to the tournament’s highest wicket-taker in each season, the Purple Cap remains one of the most prestigious individual accolades in the Indian Premier League.
With each fixture reshaping the leaderboard, standout performances with the ball are already defining the narrative of the ongoing season.
Currently, Gujarat Titans’ Prasidh Krishna is the IPL 2026’s top wicket-taker with 10 wickets from four matches and leads the race for this season’s Purple Cap.
CSK’s Anshul Kamboj also has 10 wickets but in five games.
Meanwhile, the best bowling figures for the IPL 2026 season so far has been registered by Chennai Super Kings’ Jamie Overton, who scalped 4/18 against Delhi Capitals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Since its introduction in the inaugural Indian Premier League season in 2008, the IPL Purple Cap has been claimed by some of the finest bowlers in world cricket.
The first recipient of the honour was Sohail Tanvir, who picked up 22 wickets in 11 matches for Rajasthan Royals during their title-winning campaign in 2008.
Over the years, elite T20 specialists such as Lasith Malinga and Dwayne Bravo have featured among Purple Cap winners.
In terms of standout individual seasons, Bravo and Harshal Patel share the record for most wickets in a single IPL edition, with 32 each in 2013 and 2021, respectively.
While Harshal achieved the feat in 15 matches for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2021, Bravo had registered the same tally in 18 games for Chennai Super Kings in 2013.
Apart from them, Kagiso Rabada is the only other bowler to breach the 30-wicket mark in a season, finishing with 30 wickets in 17 matches for Delhi Capitals in 2020.
Bravo, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel are the only players to have won the Purple Cap multiple times with each managing to claim the top honour twice.
Bravo secured both his wins with CSK in 2013 and 2015, while Harshal added a second in 2024 with PBKS after his 2021 triumph with RCB.
Bhuvneshwar remains the only bowler to win the award in consecutive seasons, achieving the feat with Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016 and 2017.
Only three players in IPL history – Sohail Tanvir (2008), RP Singh (2009) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2016) – have won both the Purple Cap and the IPL title in the same season, representing Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad, respectively.
Across 18 completed seasons, Indian bowlers have claimed the Purple Cap 10 times, while South African players have won it on three occasions.
RP Singh, a member of India’s inaugural T20 World Cup-winning squad, was the first bowler from the country to earn the honour after taking 23 wickets in 16 matches for Deccan Chargers in 2009.
Prasidh Krishna won the Purple Cap last season with a haul of 25 wickets from 15 matches.
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