Battles within a battle: IPL 2026 Orange and Purple Caps to be won on the last day of the season

As many as five names are in the fray for those two big individual excellence awards in batting and bowling.

Updated on: May 31, 2026, 06:13:16 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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The final of the 2026 Indian Premier League is upon us.

On Sunday, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans take the field at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium. The final showdown will be interesting on three counts.

First, who wins the trophy? If RCB do, they will become the third team after Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings to win back-to-back titles. Rajat Patidar will be the third captain to do so after Rohit Sharma (2019 and 2020) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2010 and 2011). If GT win, it will be their second trophy. They had first won in 2022, the year of their birth.

Also Read: Rajat Patidar not bothered about India T20I call, focus solely on RCB-GT final showdown in Ahmedabad

There will also be plenty of focus on who wins the Orange as well as the Purple Cap. First, let's see who all can win the Orange Cap. Rajasthan Royals' Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is presently right at the top with 776 runs at an average of 48.50. Which means GT captain Shubman Gill and his fellow opener Sai Sudharsan have the opportunity, in the last match of the season, to overtake the 15-year-old superstar from Bihar. Gill will need to score 55 runs to leave Sooryavanshi behind, while Sudharsan will need to score 67 to go past the youngest List A century-maker in world cricket.

It's not an out-of-the-ordinary task. There is a possibility they both overtake Sooryavanshi and then contest among themselves. Gill has claimed the Orange Cap once, in 2023, when he scored 890 runs in all. Sudharsan won it last season when he scored 759 runs.

Rabada vs Bhuvneshwar!

As far as the Purple Cap is concerned, GT's Kagiso Rabada is at the top of the list at present with 28 wickets. RCB's Bhuvneshwar Kumar is just two wickets behind. Please note that if both bowlers end up on the same number of wickets after Sunday's final, then Bhuvi will be the red-hot favourite to win the Purple Cap on account of his having a better economy rate. At present, Rabada has an economy rate of 9.43. Bhuvi, on the other hand, has an economy rate of 8.00.

It may be noted that Bhuvi is the only bowler in IPL history to win back-to-back Purple Caps for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016 and 2017. 2016 was the trophy-winning season for SRH. Rabada, too, has won the Purple Cap once, in 2020 in Delhi Capitals colours. He took 30 wickets in DC's only final appearance in the history of the league.

So the match is also important from the standpoint of these personal milestones.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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