The player who scores the most runs in that season gets the Orange Cap for that particular IPL season. It is a unique way designed to award the leading run-scorer of that IPL season. Even though winning the trophy is the ultimate goal for each player, players can have individual goals and one of the goals which some batsmen might have is winning the orange cap.
It is not an easy task to win the Orange Cap as you have to score runs consistently to win the award. In the 13 years of the IPL, only four Indians have won the orange cap. Overseas players have won it nine times. So, let’s have a look at the four Indians who have won the Orange Cap in the history of the IPL.
4. Sachin Tendulkar – 2010
Sachin Tendulkar was the first Indian to win the Orange Cap way back in 2010. In IPL 2010, Mumbai Indians reached the Finals and Sachin Tendulkar’s batting form was a big reason for their success. Tendulkar scored 618 runs in 15 innings at an average of 47.53 and a strike-rate of 132.61 which included five fifties.
The MI skipper hit only three sixes in that season which is surprising but still, he managed to score over 600 runs. We also have to consider that Tendulkar played the IPL in the latter part of his career so if he was at his peak, he would have dominated the IPL even in a better way. But still, Sachin Tendulkar dominated in IPL 2010 and won the Orange Cap.
3. Robin Uthappa – 2014
Robin Uthappa is the only player to win the Orange Cap from the champion side. No other player who has won the orange cap has ended winning the trophy in that season. Uthappa won the Orange Cap in 2014 when Kolkata Knight Riders won their second IPL title.
Opening the innings, Uthappa scored 660 runs in 16 innings at an average of 44 and a strike-rate of 137.78. Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir formed a formidable pair at the top of the order. Even though Uthappa failed to score in the Final he scored enough runs in the whole season to ensure that KKR reached the Final.
2. Virat Kohli – 2016
Before IPL 2016, Virat Kohli had scored more than 600 runs in one season but he hadn’t won the Orange Cap. In IPL 2016, he just went way beyond everybody as he scored 973 runs in 16 innings at an average of 81.08 and a strike-rate of 152.03. He smashed four centuries in one IPL season which is unbelievable. One of those centuries came in a 15-over-game against Kings XI Punjab.
He hit the maximum sixes in that season and even won the Most Valuable Player Award. Unfortunately, his team failed to cross the final hurdle as they lost the final just by 8 runs. Virat Kohli’s record of 973 runs in one season might never be broken in the history of the IPL.
1. KL Rahul – 2020
KL Rahul won the orange cap in this IPL season and is the latest entrant to this list of Indians winning the orange cap. Since IPL 2018, KL Rahul is batting on a different planet as he has crossed 600 runs twice, and in the season in which he didn’t score 600 runs, he scored 593 runs. In this season he scored 670 runs in 14 innings at an average of 55.83 and a strike-rate of 129.34.
He hit five half-centuries and one magnificent century against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Even though, his team kept losing in the first half of the tournament he was scoring runs consistently. KXIP lost their last game and failed to qualify for the playoffs by a small margin but KL Rahul won the orange cap by a fair margin in IPL 2020.
