Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
Inns 16 | Runs 776 | SR 237.30 | Ave 48.50 | 1x100/5x50
Selection choices will hardly ever come easier: in a barely believable campaign, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had 44 more runs, a strike rate 23 points better, and 29 more sixes than the next-best batter on any of those metrics. Quantity checked, how's this for quality: 78 off 26 to mow down 202 versus the holders, a 36-ball hundred, 93 off 38 to chase 221 in an effective must-win, 97 off 29 (yes!) in his first ever playoff game, followed by 96 off 47 while wickets kept falling around him in Qualifier 2. Staggering - whatever the age, or stage.
Virat Kohli
Inns 16 | Runs 675 | SR 165.84 | Ave 56.25 | 1x100/5x50
On the other side of age and stage, Virat Kohli showed the side we've always known - 600-plus runs for the fourth successive season - and, even more remarkably, showed a side we'd never known: trading volume for velocity, attempting boundaries off almost every other ball, and taking down the powerplay. In a season where winning powerplays was key, Kohli struck at 175 in the first six - bettered only by five of the 16 other batters with 200-plus runs in that phase. Fittingly, he finished the season with his fastest-ever fifty in the IPL. And he's crossed that mark 77 times. And he's 37.
Ishan Kishan (wk)
Inns 15 | Runs 602 | SR 182.42 | Ave 40.13 | 6x50 | Ct/St 9/1
Ishan Kishan's most prolific IPL campaign is best measured through the impact of his big knocks. He smashed 80 off 38 in the season-opener when the rest of the SRH top-six scored 59 off 51; he flayed 91 off 44 in the game that ignited their campaign; he blasted 74 off 31 to help chase down 229; he made 79 off 46 when SRH smashed 255 against RCB. And yet the best of his six fifties, arguably, was his slowest: 70 off 47 to navigate a tricky chase in a four-pointer at Chepauk. He finished as the season's third-most impactful batter.
Rajat Patidar (capt)
Inns 15 | Runs 501 | SR 192.69 | Ave 41.75 | 5x50
In a season where he joined MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma as the only captains to have won the IPL back-to-back, Patidar the batter staked serious claims to being the best in the business. Only Sooryavanshi and Abhishek Sharma hit more sixes; among those with 500-plus runs, only those two had better strike rates; no non-opener with 150-plus runs scored quicker. Patidar started the season with statement knocks - 31 off 12 in the opener versus SRH, 48* off 19 against CSK, 53 off 20 at the Wankhede - and played one of the knocks of the season in Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans. RCB were raising the roof, and their captain was leading the charge.
Heinrich Klaasen
Inns 15 | Runs 624 | SR 160.00 | Ave 48.00 | 6x50
Heinrich Klaasen went where no middle-order batter had gone in any T20 tournament: 600-plus runs while batting outside the top three. He crossed 30 in 11 out of 15 innings, often shelving higher gears for responsibility to marshal an inexperienced Sunrisers middle order. That's not to say he couldn't call on his destructive powers: ask Delhi Capitals, or Mumbai Indians (65* off 30 chasing 244). And in a crunch Chepauk contest, his takedown of Akeal Hosein and Noor Ahmad was a turning point.
Nitish Kumar Reddy
Mat 14 | Runs 302 | SR 171.59 | Wkts 8 | Econ 10.41
Of the four most compelling options for a finishing role, two were overseas (Donovan Ferreira and Tim David) - and we have some overseas guns coming later. You could argue that Nitish Kumar Reddy would pip them regardless. He was only a few strike-rate points behind both, and played impactful cameos nearly half the times he batted. The bowling numbers don't jump out, but his list of batters dismissed - Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson, Ayush Mhatre, Dhruv Jurel, Will Jacks and Prabhsimran Singh among them - underlines the impact he made with the ball for SRH.
Krunal Pandya
Mat 16 | Runs 226 | SR 145.80 | Wkts 14 | Econ 8.41
Krunal Pandya batted only nine times and bowled three overs per game on average… and he was 13th on our MVP standings for the season. The last four times he was called on to bat was in an insurance-providing No. 5 role; he crossed 40 in three of those games, including a 46-ball 73 to turn things around against MI at Raipur. With the ball, the economy was exceptional and the dismissals list elite: featuring Sooryavanshi, Klaasen, KL Rahul, Mitchell Marsh, Suryakumar Yadav, and, in the final, Jos Buttler.
Sunil Narine
Mat 13 | Wkts 15 | Econ 6.64 | Ave 22.60
Six-point-six-four runs per over in a season where the scoring rate nearly hit double digits. In five of his 13 spells, Sunil Narine went at less than a run a ball; two of those were spells of 1 for 13, against LSG and MI. Narine was instrumental in the late-season surge that kept Kolkata Knight Riders in playoffs contention until the end. He was a redeeming feature in a season where spin was largely forgotten by the IPL.
Jofra Archer
Mat 16 | Wkts 25 | Econ 9.31 | Ave 22.36
With qualification on the line, Jofra Archer produced his best performance of the season - with ball and bat. His 15-ball 32 helped RR cross 200, and he dismissed Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir and Hardik Pandya in the defence to take RR into the playoffs. Through the season he was their rock with the ball, finishing 11 wickets clear of his next-most prolific teammate. 14 of his 25 wickets came in the powerplay, the fourth-most for a bowler this season.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Mat 16 | Wkts 28 | Econ 7.95 | Ave 17.89
A decade ago, Bhuvneshwar Kumar started a run of back-to-back Purple-Cap-winning seasons, the first of them delivering him his first IPL title - and denying RCB theirs. Here he is, all these years later, having delivered RCB back-to-back crowns, and very nearly added a record third Purple Cap. Seventeen powerplay wickets at less than seven runs per over. Nine wickets at the death, while going at eights. The scalps of Gill in Qualifier 1 and Sai Sudharsan in the final. Two of the spells of the tournament. And he clinched a game with the bat too!
Kagiso Rabada
Mat 17 | Wkts 29 | Econ 9.68 | Ave 21.58
Bhuvneshwar's powerplay haul of 17 would have been enough to level the record for a single IPL edition… except Kagiso Rabada went even better with *20* wickets in the first six. Rabada and Mohammed Siraj breaking the back of teams at the top was pivotal in GT's run to the final, and Rabada outshone every other new-ball bowler with a wicket every 13 balls. He had five three-wicket hauls (bettered only by Bhuvneshwar), and joins Bhuvneshwar, Dwayne Bravo and Harshal Patel as the only bowlers with multiple Purple Caps.
Sakib Hussain
Mat 11 | Wkts 15 | Econ 9.45 | Ave 26.46
The final bowling spot in our side had a fair few domestic contenders, but it goes to a 21-year-old tasked with the hard yards of being a back-half specialist in his first season in the league. Sakib Hussain bowled 42 overs this season - 19 of them were bowled from the 15th over onwards. How much better does that economy rate look now? Outside of a debut of dreams against RR, Sakib delivered two quietly significant spells in wins over CSK: 1 for 32 defending 194 in Hyderabad and 2 for 34 at Chepauk.