Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Varun Chakaravarthy closed the gap in the Purple Cap race with two wickets against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Chakaravarthy’s spin still remained a mystery after years as he weaved his web around SRH’s batting in the crucial Qualifier 1 to play a pivotal role in KKR’s journey to the IPL 2024 final. Chakaravarthy is placed at third place in the tally with 20 wickets in his kitty while the campaigns of players above him Harshal Patel (24) and Jasprit Bumrah (20) this season are already over.
Punjab King seamer Harshal leads the way with 24 wickets and is the leading contender to win the Purple Cap for the second time. However, Chakaravarthy has a golden chance in the final to beat Harshal and snatch the cap from him just before the finish line. Meanwhile, Bumrah, who topped the rankings for weeks, now has no chance of winning his first Purple Cap.
Another PBKS pacer, Arshdeep Singh is in the top 5 and currently ranked fourth in the Purple Cap race. He finished the season with 19 wickets, which is a good sign for the Indian team ahead of the T20 World Cup.
Sunrisers Hyderabad left-arm pacer T Natarajan also has an outside chance of winning the purple cap as he is fifth in the total with 18 wickets and his campaign is not over yet. He will play eliminator 2 and if the results go SRH’s way, he will get another chance in the final to edge out the others in the beds.
Chennai Super Kings bowler Tushar Deshpande finished with 17 scalps this season. He was the pick of the CSK bowlers after Matheesha Pathirana and Mustafizur Rahman returned home at mid-on.
Yuzvendra Chahal (17 wickets each) will also have a chance to improve his tally as both will take part in the playoffs.
