Cricket, the gentleman’s game, is one of the most highly watched sports in the world. This game provides an intense adrenaline rush to its die-hard fans. The popularity of cricket has led to various tournaments and formats of the sport achieving mainstream popularity.
Nowadays, one of the most-watched and loved formats is the IPL series. This series was launched in 2008 and is hosted annually in India. Various franchises choose teams through an annual player auction that international cricketers from across the world participate in. We have collated a detailed list of the ten best IPL players. Read on for insights into your favourite players!
10. Amit Mishra
Amit Mishra, the Indian leg spinner, is best known for his sharp spin ball delivery. During his IPL tenure, he took 166 wickets and became considered one of the best spinners in the IPL. He is tenth among the best IPL players of all time. Amit Mishra is also the first bowler to pick up three hat-tricks in the IPL series.
9. Chris Gayle
Chris Gayle, the West Indies left-handed batsman, is best known for his mighty sixes and boundary shots. He is fondly called the Universe Boss and is undoubtedly the boss of the IPL series as well.
During his IPL series tenure, he scored 4965 runs, including six centuries. One of the top players in the IPL tournament, Gayle was recognised through various awards and accolades. He has been the recipient of more than one Orange Cap, the title of Most Valuable Player, and the ‘Maximum Sixes’ award in the 2011 tournament.
8. AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers is the South African second-down right-handed lethal batsman. He is best known for his expert batting skills, consistent performance, and offensive batting attacks against even the fastest bowlers in the game today. He is a brilliant sportsman and has even played six sports other than cricket at the national level.
He is one of the most reliable and steady batsmen in his team, Royal Challengers Bangalore. AB de Villiers has displayed the potential to pull the team even in tricky situations through his batting performance. His 360-degree batting style has stumped many bowlers over the years.
7. Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina stands in the seventh position among the best IPL players of all time. He is also the fourth Indian batsman to score the fastest 5528 runs in IPL seasons. Besides being an impressive batsman, Raina astounded his fans by being a classical fielder and taking more than 90 catches over the IPL tournament.
His fans have named him Mr IPL or Chinna Thala due to his exceptional batting performance in the IPL.
6. David Warner
David Warner, the Australian left-handed batsman, is best known for his clean 53 half-centuries and four centuries in the IPL tournament. He is among the best players in the IPL as well as world cup tournaments.
Over his IPL career, Warner has been awarded several prestigious recognitions and awards. Most notably, he has won the coveted Orange Cap for the highest number of runs scored not once or twice but thrice—in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
5. Lasith Malinga
Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lankan fast bowler, is best known for his classical ball delivery and hand movements. He is considered the king of the yorker ball in cricket history. He stands in the fifth position among the best IPL players of all time.
However, Malinga has not played in the last two IPL tournaments—2020 and 2021. Despite this, he is among the top bowlers in the IPL series. He is also the first Sri Lankan and second international bowler to take 170 wickets in the IPL series.
4. Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma bags the fourth spot on the list of the best IPL players of all time. His fans and teammates call him by a nickname—Hitman. He earned this nickname during the IPL series due to his impeccable performance. He is an exceptional right-handed batsman who has scored a perfect century in nearly all formats of cricket.
Over his tenure in the IPL series, Rohit has scored 5764 runs and is the third-highest run-scorer in the IPL series. Besides his smooth batting performance, Rohit has led the Mumbai Indians team to five title wins with his exceptional captaincy skills.
3. Shikhar Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan is counted among the top batters in the IPL and is the second-highest run-scorer of all time in the tournament. His IPL performance has peaked of late, and he has delivered a spectacular performance in the tournaments held in 2020 and 2021.
He ranks third among the best IPL players of all time. He has scored an amazing 6086 runs over the course of his IPL innings. Dhawan achieved this milestone in his 199th IPL innings. He is best known for his clean side-on stance and trivial trigger movement with powerful off-side cuts and drives.
2. Dwayne Bravo
Champion, champion…! We are sure that you must have heard this tune on several social media platforms! The star of this song is Dwayne Bravo, a classical West Indies bowler. Bravo needs little to no introduction for the IPL series buffs. He is one of the most successful West Indian players in IPL history.
He is known for his deadly slow ball delivery and raising the heart rate of even top-order batters. Over his tenure in the IPL series, Bravo has taken 181 wickets in the 158 IPL innings he has played, in addition to having scored a whopping 4320 runs! He is the highest wicket-taker of the IPL series to date.
1. Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli is considered the very best player in IPL history. The astonishing fact about Virat’s popularity in the IPL is that the team he plays for has never won the title in the IPL to date. However, he has a vast and dedicated fan following on most leading social media platforms.
Virat has proved his worth and talent at several IPL matches and won several recognitions such as MVP, Orange Cup, and the ‘Maximum Sixes’ award over the course of IPL tournaments over the years.
During his tenure in the IPL series from 2008 to 2022, Virat has scored 6411 runs over 208 IPL innings. In fact, he is the batter who has achieved the highest number of runs in the entirety of the IPL series. Due to his excellent performance and dedication, he has been the first and only player representing the same franchise for all the seasons of the IPL series—Royal Challengers Bangalore.