Top 5 Bowlers who are the most likely contenders to win the Purple Cap in IPL 2018

In the ten years journey of the Indian Premier League (IPL) so far, many players have united together to contribute with match-winning performances and succeed their franchise to the glory. Each and every single member of the teams along with their support staff have played an important role in the various campaigns. But there have also been some spectacular and mind-boggling performances from the bowlers in the various seasons of the IPL. Both the fast bowlers and the slower bowlers have emerged architects of several victories in the past for their respective franchises.

On one side, where the batsmen did their job of scoring runs in an explosive manner, at the same time the bowlers have also implemented their plans with complete supremacy in different types of situations. But as far as the crowds and fans perspective, the inputs of the bowlers are extremely left unrecognized is the harsh reality of the modern day game. However, T20 cricket and especially IPL has given the world a number of game-changing bowlers in these ten years and they have succeeded commendably to depict their ability and variations on this global platform.

The eleventh edition of the competition is also expected to be a great one for the bowlers where they would be reeling and deceiving some of the world’s best batsmen and arming India to win a lot more games for their respective franchises and would also have an eye on becoming the highest wicket-taker in the tournament and winning the Purple Cap.

Here are the top five bowlers who are front-line contenders to win the Purple Cap in IPL 2018:

1. Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar was retained by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) before the 2018 auctions as the second player, along with his skipper David Warner. It was a great choice made by the franchise to retain the services of one of best bowlers in the history of the IPL. The right-arm fast bowler has won the Purple Cap twice in two successive seasons in 2016 and 2017, in which he tallied 23 and 24 wickets respectively. He has often been the most consistent bowler for his franchise who can swing the new ball and also execute the yorkers to perfection in the death overs.

Bhuvneshwar is a constant name in the national team’s T20 setup and has some impressive numbers and an economy of fewer than seven runs per over. In IPL, he has so far picked up 111 wickets in 90 matches at an average of 21.07 and is also the sixth highest wicket-taker in the tournament. The 28-year old would surely be looking forward to continuing his golden run in the upcoming season of the IPL and hoping to win his third successive Purple Cap in a row.

2. Jaydev Unadkat

There were many exciting Indian as well as foreign players up for grabs in this year’s grand auction, but Unadkat definitely emerged as the star personality from the event as he attracted the second highest bid and also became the most expensive Indian player at the 2018 IPL auction. Both the returning franchises, Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals went to the extreme limits in the raising the bars for the left-arm fast bowler, but eventually, he was picked up by the Royals for staggering rate of Rs 11.5 crores which was 10 times his base price of 1.5 crores. It is surely a great investment made by the franchise who also bought the highest bidder in the auction, Ben Stokes in an aim to build a strong composition for the upcoming season in their refreshed beginning.

Unadkat had an incredible and stunning season with the Rising Pune Supergiants in the previous edition, where he finished as the second highest wicket-taker of the tournament. He was also the highest wicket-taker in the three-match T20 home series against Sri Lanka and was adjudged the Player of the Series for his match-winning performances. The paceman would be wishing to make a similar kind of impact in the upcoming edition of the competition and depict his high worth by some consistent performances to take his team to the glory.

3. Kuldeep Yadav

T20 cricket has seen various mystery bowlers in the past and much more are recurring to perform at the grandest stages. Left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav is one of those mysterious materials, who was retained by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2018 auction through the Right to Match (RTM) card option for a worthy price of Rs 5.8 crores. Young 23-year old Kuldeep has been among the wickets in the previous two seasons of the IPL, but was not a consistent name in the KKR line-up, with the Windies spinner Sunil Narine and veteran leg-spinner Piyush Chawla being preferred in the first choice.

But lately, he has depicted his abilities and skills for the Indian team where he has picked up 12 wickets in 8 T20 international matches. Many of the best batsmen in the shortest format of the game have often been failed to solve the mystery put up by the wrist-spinner and thus he has been doing wonders with his bagful of variations in his armory. After an incredible run with the national side, Kuldeep will now be expected to provide some ravishing returns to his IPL franchise and will be among the front-line bowlers in the race to win the Purple Cap in the upcoming season.

4. Dwayne Bravo

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) once again brought back their most stylish performers of them all at 2018 IPL auction through their second RTM option, Dwayne Bravo. He has been an experienced campaigner in the tournament for his various franchises in the past especially for CSK where he has twice finished as the highest wicket-takers in the league in 2013 and 2015. The Windies all-rounder is also the highest wicket-taker in the shortest format of the game with a mammoth 413 victims in his kitty. Bravo was forced to miss the previous season of the IPL because of a hamstring injury which he suffered in December 2016.

After returning from injury, he had an impressive time in the Caribbean Premier League 2017 edition where he led the Trinbago Knight Riders to the prestigious title win. He also finished as one of the two highest wicket-taker in the recent edition of the Big Bash League, along with the Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan. As presently the West-Indian has no major plans for a comeback to the national team, he would be very eager to enforce his job in the best possible manner and in accordance with his great reputation in the tournament. Bravo will at the same time looking add some more big names in his wickets tally in T20 cricket.

5. Rashid Khan

19-year old Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan astonished everyone with his extensive capabilities that too at a young age when he picked up by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 2017 edition of the IPL. And the leggie never left any slight chance for the opposition batsmen to settle down and finished with 17 wickets in 14 games in his debut season of the global tournament. After a successful first season, he was retained by SRH at the 2018 auction for Rs 9 crores.

The Afghan spin sensation recently had a spectacular season with the Adelaide Strikers in the seventh edition of the Big Bash League (BBL), where he was the highest wicket-taker with 18 scalps to his name. He played a defining role in leading the Strikers to grab their maiden BBL title. Presently, Rashid is also the proud holder of the second spot in the ICC T20I rankings, as he has been a consistent match-winning performer for his national side. After a great run in international cricket and the previous edition of the IPL, he would now once again be focusing to have a resounding journey in the upcoming edition of the IPL and will also be looking to finish as the top wicket-taker.

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