Who Has Won The Most Purple Caps In IPL History: The IPL Purple Cap is one of the ‘big-three’ individual awards given out at the end of the IPL season. The prize is given to the bowler with the most wickets in a season and hence is one of the most talked about things throughout the season.
Having a Purple Cap winner in your team is a massive deal for players and fans alike and winning it can do wonders for your career not only in the IPL but on the international level.
Several players have won the trophy before embarking on massive international careers, while other times the Cap is won by legendary bowlers proving their metal on one of the biggest cricketing stages in the world.
Today, we will look back at all the Purple Cap winners in IPL history, how their teams faired in the tournament, and which plates have won it the most time.
List Of All IPL Purple Cap Winners Ever
But first, let us look at the very first winner of the Purple Cap, back in the 2008 season. While nowadays, the Cap is worn by the players with the most wickets throughout the tournament, in the early seasons only the award was given to the bowler, that too at the end of the tournament.
With that being established, Pakistani left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir won the Cap in the inaugural season of the IPL. He took 22 wickets in 11 matches for inaugural champions Rajasthan Royals. This was the only season season where Pakistani cricketers played in the IPL, and Tanvir was the best-performing one from them.
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In 2009, R.P. Singh became the first Indian to win the Purple Cap while playing for champions Deccan Chargers. He took 23 wickets in 16 matches. The next Purple Cap winner was a star on the rise, as Pragyan Ojha became the first spinner to win the award in 2010 for Deccan Chargers, taking 21 wickets in 16 matches as the team finished second on the table but finished fourth after losing the third-place playoff.
With two Deccan Chargers bowlers winning the Purple Cap, the next winner will go down as one of, if not the greatest bowler in IPL history as the 2011 Purple Cap belonged to Lasith Malinga, who took 28 wickets in 16 matches for Mumbai Indians as the team finished third after a loss in Qualifier 2.
2012 saw yet another legendary pacer Morne Morkel win the Purple Cap for Delhi Capitals with 25 wickets in 16 matches. But the team itself fumbled the league as they finished third despite topping the table. They even sat Morkel on the bench in the all-important Qualifier 2.
In 2013, Dwayne Bravo became the first all-rounder to win the Purple Cap. And not only did he win it, but also broke the record of taking the most wickets in an IPL season as he scalped 32 in 18 matches, this record stands to this day. CSK finished runner-ups that season after losing to MI in the final.
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2014 saw a debutant win the Purple Cap for the first time as Mohit Sharma took 23 wickets in 16 matches for CSK, who finished third after losing Qualifier 2 to Kings XI Punjab.
A CSK bowler won the award for the third season in a row as Dwayne Bravo became the first bowler to win the Purple Cap twice. He took 26 wickets in 16 matches on route to losing in the final to MI once again.
2016 saw a bowler from the title-winning team win the Purple Cap after eight seasons. The tournament was won by Sinrisers Hyderabad, and the Purple Cap was given to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who took 23 wickets in 17 matches. Bhuvi made it two-in-two in 2017 and became the second and to this day last bowler to win two Purple Caps as he took 26 wickets in 14 matches. SRH finished fourth this season after losing in the Eliminator to KKR.
2018 saw a surprise winner. After impressing in the last season, Australian T20 specialist Andrew Tye won the Purple Cap for Kings XI Punjab with 24 wickets in 14 matches. This was also the first time the Purple Cap winner’s team did not make it to the playoffs, as Punjab finished a dismal seventh out of eight teams.
In 2019, MI defeated CSK in the final yet again. And wouldn’t you know it, a CSK bowler won the Purple Cap. This time, it was Imran Tahir who took 26 wickets in 17 matches in the twilight of his legendary career.
The 2020 season of the IPL was played in front of no crowds and in Dubai. That season, Kagiso Rabada lit the league of fire with 30 wickets in 17 matches as he won the Purple Cap for Delhi Capitals, who reached the final for the first time in franchise history.
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2021 saw a record being matched, as Harshal Patel for Royal Challengers Bengaluru matched the record of most wickets in a season as he took a whopping 32 wickets in just 15 matches as RCB came fourth after losing the Eliminator to KKR.
2022 saw the renaissance of Rajasthan Royals as they made the final for only the second time in IPL history. Yuzvendra Chahal took the most wickets that season, 27 in 17 matches.
2023 was the year of Mohammed Shami, not only was he the highest wicket-taker in the ODI World Cup that year, but also was the Purple Cap winner in the IPL with 28 wickets in 17 matches as his Gujarat Titans lost in the final to CSK.
Who Has Won The Most Purple Caps In IPL History
So, some conclusions we can extract from all this data. Firstly, barring one incident in 2018, the Purple Cap winner’s team always makes it to the playoffs. But their team has only won the tournament twice, in 2008 and 2016.
There are two players who have won the Purple Cap twice, Dwayne Bravo and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. And unsurprisingly, they are both in the top-five wicket-takers in IPL history.
The player with the least matches played in a season to win a Purple Cap is Sohail Tanvir in 2008, who only played 11 matches this season. While Pragyan Ojha only took 21 wickets in 2010, the lowest tally for a Purple Cap winner.
While Sohail Tanvir is the youngest Purple Cap winner in IPL history aged 24, Imran Tahir was the oldest to do so at the age of 40.
CSK has had the most Purple Cap winners in the IPL with four. If we consider Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad as one, they too have won the Cap four times. The current teams who have never won the Purple Cap are – KKR and LSG.
Lastly, the ratio of Indians and overseas players to have won the Purple Cap is 50-50, as both of them have won eight Purple Caps each.
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