Top 5 players who can win the Orange Cap in IPL 2026

The T20 World Cup may have culminated but T20 cricket’s biggest festival returns with the 19th edition of the IPL set to start on March 28. Over the last two years India’s premier franchise league has seen incredible displays of batsmanship and fireworks of the highest order with record totals and more frequent scores over 200.

This means individual displays of batsmanship and prime batters carrying form throughout the season. Legends of the game have won the IPL Orange Cap with earth-shattering season, let us take a look at who could potentially add their name to this glorious list this time around.

1) Sai Sudharsan, Gujarat Titans

Sai Sudharsan was the main man with the bat for Gujarat Titans last season. With a blistering 759 runs, he won the 2025 Orange Cap as Gujarat made it to the Eliminator, losing out to the Mumbai Indians in a game where Sudharsan’s innings almost took them over the line. He formed a solid partnership with Shubhman Gill at the top of the order, holding the Titan’s batting innings together and stabilising it. He averaged 54.21 and struck at 156.17 with six half-centuries and one century.

In a year which subsequently saw him make his Test debut for India, and struggling for form and runs, Sai would want to make a statement in this year’s IPL, and what better way to do it than joining the likes of Chris Gayle, David Warner and Virat Kohli as winners of the Orange Cap in multiple seasons

2 – Ishan Kishan – Sunrisers Hyderabad

The year 2026 has been a comeback year for Ishan Kishan. In 2025, Kishan top-scored in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 517 runs in 10 innings with two centuries and a brilliant 101 in the final , as he led Jharkhand to the title. This led to a recall to the Indian team and he grabbed the chance with both hands, getting 317 runs in ten innings on India’s road to the 2026 T20 World Cup victory.

Kishan has excelled at number 3 as a spin-hitter, and despite Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head being the poster boys at the top of the order for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, it is Kishan who holds the keys to how Hyderabad will fare this season. He started 2025 with a blistering unbeaten 106 off just 47 balls, but the early promise waned as the season progressed. Now, Kishan has a chance to make up for all those wrongs with a successful and consistent campaign.

3 – Aiden Markram – Lucknow Super Giants

Aiden Markram comes into the IPL in a rich vein of form, dominating at the top of the order for South Africa in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup. With 286 runs from eight innings at an impressive strike rate of 165.31, he was the solid presence at the top in the Proteas’ batting lineup. In his unbeaten 86 against New Zealand, his half-century came off just 19 balls, showing that he has it to take on the bowlers, while also being a solid backbone of the innings.

He formed a destructive partnership with Mitch Marsh at the top of the order for LSG last season and while it was the Aussie who teed off, signs point to Markram being the new-look Lucknow team’s backbone at the top.

4) Yashasvi Jaiswal – Rajasthan Royals

With the departure of Sanju Samson to the Chennai Super Kings, the onus now falls on 24-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal to be the focal point of Rajasthan Royals’ batting lineup. Likely to be partnered with the young Vaibahav Sooryavanshi, Jaiswal’s role now changes from aggressor to accumulator.

With 559 runs in 14 innings in the previous season Jaiswal showed that he can step up when given responsibility. Jaiswal has been the mainstay throughout his time in the pink jersey, playing second-fiddle to the likes of Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson. Now, it is his time to shine and there is no better way to do so than winning the Orange Cap by scoring heaps of runs.

5 – Virat Kohli – Royal Challengers Bengaluru

How is it possible to make a prospective Orange Cap list without including the highest all-time run-scorer in the tournament history? Virat Kohli again showed up with the bat in RCB’s title-winning season with 657 runs in 15 games, finishing behind Sai Sudharsan and Suryakumar Yadav in the leaderboard. With 8661 runs in 267 IPL matches, Kohli stands above everyone else. His record of 973 runs in 2016 season still stands unbroken.

RCB have a squad which can accommodate Kohli’s batting style, allowing him to score his runs freely, and if they are to have any chance of defending their crown, they will need Kohli to be at the top of his game. The way to do so could probably be by winning the Orange Cap for the third time in his career.