In its attempts to reward the players for their brilliant performances, BCCI gives the Purple Cap award annually to the highest wicket-taker of every IPL season. It is one of the most prestigious trophies in the tournament and sits right at the top of individual accolades in IPL alongside the Orange cap award.
According to the latest stats, Purple cap winners get a prize money of 10 lakhs and a trophy for their achievement.
Let us first take a look at all the list of players who have won the Purple Cap winner till now.
| Year | Orange Cap winner | Wickets taken |
| 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 |
In IPL 2022, each team will play 14 matches and the number of matches has been increased considerably keeping the two new teams in mind. The bowlers will thus get an opportunity to pick up even more wickets and overall it is going to be an interesting season of IPL.
In this article, we shall be talking about 5 players who might win the Purple cap award in IPL 2022.
1. Harshal Patel – We must start the list with the winner of IPL 2021’s Purple cap winner himself, Harshal Patel. It shocked pretty much everyone when RCB did not retain Harshal Patel ahead of IPL 2022 despite having a spot remaining. The Indian pacer was simply sensational last season and he broke many records too.
He picked up 32 wickets in IPL 2021, which is the highest any bowler has ever accomplished in an IPL season, tied with Dwayne Bravo. Dwayne Bravo achieved the same feat in IPL 2013 with Chennai Super Kings.
The only viable reason for Royal Challengers Bangalore not retaining Harshal Patel might be a financial one as the bowler might not have wanted to be their fourth retention. If that be true, we must admit that he made a wise decision as all the IPL teams will be more than ready to buy the in-form star given his performance last year’s performance.
However, Patel has not been that consistent over the years. In reality, 2021 was the only year wherein he got a chance to prove himself and before this, his best season was back in 2015 when he picked up 17 wickets.
Harshal Patel got his maiden call-up from Team India last year itself after he won the Purple cap and he did pretty well in his debut series. Patel undoubtedly has full potential to win the Purple Cap award this year as well.
2. Kagiso Rabada – Next on the list is IPL 2020 purple cap winner Kagiso Rabada. He won the award in 2020 after picking up 30 wickets. Unlike Harshal Patel, however, he has been consistent in every IPL season he has played and thus he has a better shot at winning the Purple cap this season as compared to Harshal Patel.
He picked up 25 wickets in IPL 2019, 30 wickets in IPL 2020 and 15 wickets in IPL 2021. It was shocking as to why Delhi Capitals did not retain him but at the end of the day, every team can retain only 4 players each and DC made their choices accordingly.
It was earlier rumored that Kagiso Rabada will be drafted by one of the two new franchises (Lucknow and Ahmedabad) but they too decided later that they were better off without him.
Kagiso Rabada will thus head on to the Mega Auction and all the teams will be ready to bid high for him. Afterall he is one of the best bowlers in the World right now. Moreover, the thirst to prove Delhi Capitals and the two new franchises wrong will push Rabada to break his own records. Thus, he has high chances of winning the purple cap award this season.
3. Trent Boult – Like Harshal Patel and Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult was also not retained by his team despite giving a tremendous performance in the last few seasons. Trent Boult made a brilliant duo with Jasprit Bumrah at Mumbai Indians and he was one of the prime reasons that led to Mumbai Indians winning the 2019 IPL trophy.
Although Mumbai Indians let go of him ahead of IPL 2022, he will not lack suitors in the Mega Auction as he is arguably the best bowler in the world right now across all formats.
Trent Boult picked up 25 wickets in IPL 2020 and 15 wickets in IPL 2021. Although he is yet to win a Purple cap award, 2022 can finally be his year and he can prove his worth with a new franchise.
4. Rashid Khan – Rashid Khan is the only spinner on this list and the only one who deserves to be. Afterall he is the best spinner the world has seen in a long time and it would be unjust to not mention the Afghan mystery man.
Rashid Khan made his IPL debut in 2017 for Sunrisers Hyderabad and he had been with the franchise ever since, until this year. After IPL 2021, Sunrisers Hyderabad let go of Rashid Khan and the Ahmedabad franchise drafted him in for 15 crores.
He picked up 17 wickets in 2017, 21 wickets in 2018, 17 wickets in 2019, 20 wickets in 2020 and 18 wickets in 2021. He too has never won the Purple cap award before despite coming close on many occasions but now that he will have a fresh start with a new team, he has big chances of doing something big in IPL 2022.
5. Jasprit Bumrah – There is no doubt that for the last 5 years, Jasprit Bumrah has consistently been one of the best bowlers in the world across all formats and when it comes to IPL, there are not many players as compatible as Bumrah.
He has picked up at least 17 wickets in all of the last five seasons and his personal best came in 2020 when he picked up 27 wickets. That year he lost the Purple cap to Kagiso Rabada by just 3 wickets. Unfortunately, Jasprit Bumrah is yet to get his hands on the prestigious purple cap award.
He has been elemental in Mumbai Indians’ success in the past few years and in a complex season like this one and he can finally up his personal performance. We can thus expect a Purple cap deserving performance from Jasprit Bumrah in IPL 2022.
Also Read:- TATA IPL 2022: 5 Players who can win the Orange Cap Award in IPL 2022
