The Indian Premier League (IPL) awards an orange cap to the leading run scorer and a purple cap to the bowler with the most number of wickets. It is usually not very difficult to look at the current form of players and then make a calculated prediction based on the form of each bowler and batsmen and decide who the top contenders are for the orange and purple cap.
However, it is not that straightforward for the 2020 IPL because there has been very little cricket from March 2020 due to the coronavirus. The entire Indian team have not played any cricket or had any practice in India. Thus it is hard to predict the current form of batsmen and bowlers.
What we have done is look at the previous records of batsmen and bowlers in the IPL and also their consistency when representing their country or state. Based on this data we name our top three batsmen and bowlers that you should watch out for during IPL 2020.
Top 3 Batsmen For Orange Cap
Rohit Sharma: thrives during the IPL as a captain and usually leads from the front with the bat. Sharma has never won the orange cap in the history of the IPL and will dearly like to pick up this award and show why he continues to be one of the most feared batsmen in T20 cricket.
David Warner: no other player in the history of the IPL has won the orange cap three times. Warner finished with the most number of runs in 2015, 2017 and 2019. The left-hander will once again lead Sunrisers Hyderabad and will be keen on getting his fourth orange cap.
Virat Kohli: needs to make a statement during this IPL with his leadership skills and with the bat. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have performed well below par under Kohli’s leadership and it will be up to him to pile on the runs and make RCB a force to be reckoned with this year. Kohli has won the orange cap once before in 2016.
Some of the other batsmen you will want to watch out for include KL Rahul, Andre Russell, Kane Williamson and AB Devilliers.
Top 3 Bowlers For Purple Cap
J Bumrah: considered one of the best death bowlers in the world, J Bumrah is once again in the running to be at the top of the leading wicket-takers list. We need to wait and watch to see how match fit Bumrah is after the long layoff. A fit and in-form Bumrah is a nightmare for most sides. However, if he is not at 100 percent, then Bumrah tends to bowl economically but does not pick up a lot of wickets.
I Tahir: won the purple cap in 2019 and is expected to pose a major threat to the batsmen in spin friendly conditions in the UAE. However, Tahir hasn’t played a lot of cricket in the last 12 months as he retired from ODI cricket after the 2019 World Cup and has not been a regular in the South African T20 side. Chennai Super Kings relied a lot of Tahir during the 2019 IPL and will once again look to him to be one of their main wicket-takers.
B Kumar: while many look at J Bumrah to be the number one bowler in India, B Kumar has won the purple cap award on two occasions. He finished as the leading wicket-taker in 2016 and 2017. David Warner has a lot of respect for B Kumar and now that Warner is captaining Sunriser Hyderabad again, expect B Kumar to be given more opportunity to win his third purple cap.
Some of the other bowlers you can keep an eye out for include Rashid Khan, Dwayne Bravo, R Jadeja and M Rahman.
