The Indian Premier League which began in the year 2008 has been the best domestic T20 league in world cricket for many years now. The league has already completed its 15 years and is well on its way to the 16th season and many more. The league also expanded its roots to 10 teams from the previous 8 in the last year as two more teams were added to the league.
As you already know, Orange Cap and Purple Cap are the two most prestigious awards in the IPL along with the trophy. Orange Cap is given to the player who scored the most runs in the season and the Purple Cap is given to the player who took the most wickets throughout the season. Today, we are going to talk about the top-3 players who have won the Purple Cap most number of times in the Indian Premier League history.
1. Dwayne Bravo (West Indies, 2 Times)
This West Indian legend has been one of the top 5 great bowlers in the history of the Indian Premier League. He has won the highest bowling pinnacle in the IPL, the Purple Cap, two times in the years 2013 and 2015 quite dominantly but unfortunately was not able to make his team win in any of the years. In the 2013 season, he took 32 wickets in 18 matches whereas, in 2015, he took 26 wickets. His economy was almost 8 runs per over in both seasons which is considered pretty good in the T20 format. Dwayne Bravo has played for the Chennai Super Kings franchise for the most part of his IPL career. He announced his retirement from the league this year before the auction and was appointed as the bowling coach of the CSK franchise. He also has the most number of wickets ever in IPL history to his name (183).
2. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (India, 2 Times)
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, one of the finest swing bowlers to ever play on the cricket field, has also won this Purple Cap award twice in his IPL career. Bhuvneshwar is the kind of bowler who gives you wickets upfront in the power play and is a four-over bank, which means that he doesn’t leak many runs. Add his exceptional skill to swing the ball both ways to these qualities and he becomes as lethal as any other top bowler. He won the Purple Cap first in the year 2016 when he took 23 wickets at an economy of just 7.4 runs per over and played a big hand in making his team Sunrisers Hyderabad win the trophy. He retained his Purple Cap the next year also as he took 26 wickets in the 2017 season with a better economy of 7.05 runs per over. He has 154 IPL wickets to his name as of now and would be looking forward to adding many more wickets to this tally in the upcoming season of the IPL.
3. Harshal Patel (India, 1 Time)
There were many players who could have been on this list at this number but our team chose Harshal Patel over the others as he took the most number of wickets among all the other Purple Cap winners in a particular season. Harshal Patel won the Purple Cap in the 2021 season playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore as he took a record 32 wickets in just 15 matches with an economy of 8.14 runs per over. He became only the second bowler in the history of the IPL to cross the 30-wicket mark. He proved to be successful because the pitches in the UAE complemented his bowling style and variations well. After his season, he was also called up by the selectors to play for India in the T20 World Cup 2021.
