Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rashid Khan, Arshdeep Singh, and Varun Chakaravarthy are probably the best bowlers in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Yet none of them have more wickets than Harshal Patel in the last five seasons.
Bumrah remains the only one out of them who’s missed matches due to injury. And no, Harshal hasn’t played a greater number of matches. Yet, he’s standing on top of the wickets mountain.
Harshal Patel or Purple Patel?
The right-arm pacer doesn’t have a designated home ground like Arshdeep, Bumrah, Chakaravarthy or Rashid. Since 2021, Harshal has played for 3 different teams. He was with Royal Challengers Bengaluru from 2021 to 2023, spent one season with Punjab Kings (2024) and now plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
No one’s making an argument here that Harshal is a better bowler than them. In fact, he hasn’t even played for the India cricket team since January 2023. But he might be a more impactful and valuable pick than all the bowlers mentioned above. He’s won the Purple Cap twice, in 2021 and 2024. Only two more bowlers have done that, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Dwayne Bravo.
In the modern T20 format, where the game has become more lopsided towards batters, it’s often the team with the best bowlers who comes out on top. And he falls right into this category. Among the top 50 wicket-takers in the IPL since 2021, no bowler has a better wickets-per-match ratio than Harshal Patel.
Most wickets in IPL since 2021
| Bowler | Innings | Wickets | Wicket per Match | Average | Economy | Strike Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harshal Patel | 65 | 102 | 1.56 | 20.03 | 8.77 | 13.6 |
| Yuzvendra Chahal | 69 | 93 | 1.34 | 22.80 | 8.22 | 16.6 |
| Rashid Khan | 67 | 80 | 1.19 | 24.91 | 7.65 | 19.5 |
| Avesh Khan | 61 | 77 | 1.26 | 25.38 | 8.80 | 17.2 |
| Arshdeep Singh | 62 | 75 | 1.20 | 26.33 | 8.91 | 17.7 |
IPL’s most impactful bowler
Bumrah has earned himself enough respect that batters often try to play him out. Arshdeep Singh is on his way there. One mustn’t forget he is the most successful T20I bowler for India. The reason why Harshal isn’t mentioned with these pacers is because he rarely, if ever, bowls in the powerplay.
Harshal has bowled just 18.1 overs in the powerplay since 2021. Pacers generally bowl more in just one season. He’s used as a middle and death-overs bowler. He’s bowled 214.4 overs from 7-20 overs in the IPL during this period.
This may have been discounted before. But nowadays, batters don’t slow down. They never take their feet off the pedal. That’s where Harshal comes in. He’s not meant to be economical. His job is taking wickets. And as mentioned above, he’s the best there is at doing that.
In truth, his impact might be higher than the likes of Bumrah, Rashid or Arshdeep, even though he may not be as versatile, skillful or fear-instilling as them.
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