The IPL Purple Cap honours the bowler who finishes each Indian Premier League season with the most wickets. From Sohail Tanvir’s 22 wickets in the inaugural 2008 edition to Kagiso Rabada’s 29 in 2026, the award has highlighted fast bowlers, wrist-spinners and all-rounders who made repeated breakthroughs across a demanding T20 tournament.
Complete IPL Purple Cap winners list
The Purple Cap was introduced during the first IPL season in 2008. A bowler wears it while leading the wicket-taking chart during the tournament, while the player who finishes first at the end of the season receives the final award. ESPNcricinfo’s season-by-season records document the winners across the league’s history.
| IPL season | Purple Cap winner | Wickets |
| 2008 | Sohail Tanvir | 22 |
| 2009 | RP Singh | 23 |
| 2010 | Pragyan Ojha | 21 |
| 2011 | Lasith Malinga | 28 |
| 2012 | Morne Morkel | 25 |
| 2013 | Dwayne Bravo | 32 |
| 2014 | Mohit Sharma | 23 |
| 2015 | Dwayne Bravo | 26 |
| 2016 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 23 |
| 2017 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 26 |
| 2018 | Andrew Tye | 24 |
| 2019 | Imran Tahir | 26 |
| 2020 | Kagiso Rabada | 30 |
| 2021 | Harshal Patel | 32 |
| 2022 | Yuzvendra Chahal | 27 |
| 2023 | Mohammed Shami | 28 |
| 2024 | Harshal Patel | 24 |
| 2025 | Prasidh Krishna | 25 |
| 2026 | Kagiso Rabada | 29 |
The table shows how difficult it is to dominate IPL bowling charts across multiple campaigns. Most seasons brought a new winner, but four bowlers—Dwayne Bravo, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Kagiso Rabada—won the Purple Cap twice. Their repeat appearances reflect more than a single good season: they combined wicket-taking skill with the ability to adapt to different opponents, venues and team roles.
How the Purple Cap is decided
The award is based on wickets, not economy rate, bowling average or best innings figures. A bowler can be economical without taking enough wickets to lead the standings, while another can concede runs but still finish on top by dismissing more batters. This makes the Purple Cap a straightforward measure of wicket-taking output over a full IPL campaign.
Wikipedia’s IPL awards record notes that economy rate acts as the tie-breaker when bowlers finish level on wickets. That detail matters because a tied wicket tally can produce very different bowling performances. One player may have taken wickets mainly in the middle overs, while another may have done so in the powerplay or death overs, where scoring rates and risks are usually higher.
For readers comparing fixtures and potential bowling match-ups, wicket charts are most useful when considered alongside playing conditions, team combinations and bowling roles. Searches for today match prediction 100 sure often focus on an immediate result, but a season-long wicket race rewards consistency rather than one standout spell.
The highest wicket totals in Purple Cap history
Dwayne Bravo’s 32 wickets for Chennai Super Kings in 2013 and Harshal Patel’s 32 for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2021 are the joint-highest Purple Cap totals in a single IPL season. Those campaigns set a demanding benchmark: a bowler needs regular wickets over a long tournament rather than a brief run of dominant performances.
Kagiso Rabada’s 30 wickets in 2020 remains one of the standout fast-bowling campaigns in the competition. He later added a second Purple Cap in 2026 with 29 wickets for Gujarat Titans. Rabada’s two wins came six seasons apart, illustrating the durability required to remain among the IPL’s leading wicket-takers across changing squads and match conditions.
The 28-wicket mark has also been reached several times. Lasith Malinga took 28 in 2011, Mohammed Shami matched the total in 2023, and Rabada’s 2026 tally moved beyond it. These seasons underline that an elite IPL wicket-taker usually needs to deliver throughout both the league phase and, where applicable, the knockout matches.
Repeat winners and what sets them apart
Dwayne Bravo: the first two-time winner
Bravo became the first bowler to win the Purple Cap twice. He led the wicket charts with 32 wickets in 2013 and returned with 26 in 2015, both seasons for Chennai Super Kings. His 2013 haul remained the joint-highest single-season tally through 2026.
Bravo’s repeat success is notable because the IPL often rewards specialists with sharply defined roles. A bowler who can be used in pressure situations, particularly later in an innings, has more opportunities to take wickets but also faces greater scoring risk. Winning the cap twice showed his ability to balance those demands.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s consecutive wins
Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the Purple Cap in consecutive seasons for Sunrisers Hyderabad: 23 wickets in 2016 and 26 in 2017. Consecutive titles are especially significant in a tournament where opposition teams rapidly analyse successful bowlers and adjust their batting plans the following year.
His two seasons also demonstrate that a Purple Cap winner does not necessarily need a record total. The leading tally varies with the balance between bat and ball in each edition. In 2016, 23 wickets were enough to finish first; in 2017, the winning count rose to 26.
Harshal Patel and Kagiso Rabada
Harshal Patel’s Purple Caps came in 2021 and 2024. His 32 wickets for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2021 matched Bravo’s all-time season record, before he claimed another award with 24 wickets for Punjab Kings in 2024. The difference between those totals shows how much the leading wicket count can vary from one year to another.
Rabada won in 2020 and 2026, making him another bowler to reach two Purple Caps. His 30 wickets in 2020 were followed by 29 in 2026, placing both campaigns among the strongest wicket-taking seasons in the award’s history. His record also reinforces the value of pace bowlers who can take wickets at multiple stages of an innings.
Pace, spin and changing IPL conditions
The Purple Cap list includes a broad range of bowling styles. Fast bowlers such as Tanvir, Malinga, Morkel, Rabada, Shami and Prasidh Krishna appear alongside spinners including Pragyan Ojha, Imran Tahir and Yuzvendra Chahal. That mix reflects the IPL’s varied pitches, venues and tactical demands.
Pace bowlers may find wickets through new-ball movement, bouncers, yorkers or slower deliveries at the death. Spinners can build their tally by attacking during the middle overs, when batters look to increase the scoring rate without the fielding restrictions of the powerplay. Neither route guarantees the cap; selection certainty and team progression are equally important.
The list also reveals that a bowler’s franchise can change between Purple Cap-winning seasons. Harshal Patel won with Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2021 and Punjab Kings in 2024, while Rabada’s wins came with Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans. The award is therefore an individual honour, even though squad balance and captaincy decisions strongly influence opportunity.
What the winners list tells us
A Purple Cap campaign is not simply about one exceptional match. The winner must stay fit, retain a place in the XI, bowl enough high-impact overs and continue taking wickets after teams identify and prepare for their strengths. A bowler’s final total is shaped by the number of matches played, but also by whether they remain effective as conditions shift through the season.
The lowest winning tally in this list was Pragyan Ojha’s 21 wickets in 2010, while the highest was 32, shared by Bravo and Harshal Patel. That range shows why seasonal context matters. Comparing totals is useful, but the position at the top of the wicket table remains the defining measure of a Purple Cap winner.
The IPL Purple Cap has produced a varied history of elite bowling, from early winners such as Sohail Tanvir and RP Singh to repeat champions including Bravo, Bhuvneshwar, Harshal Patel and Rabada. The complete list to 2026 shows that wickets remain one of the clearest ways for bowlers to leave a lasting mark on an IPL season.